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Table of Contents ABOUT THIS E-BOOK...............................................................................3 “Money Objections: It’s Never About The Money”..................................4 “Imagine That! (The Role of the Imagination in Buying Decisions)”.....10 “Hit or Miss Does Not Work in Selling”.................................................14 “When The Going Gets Tough, Go Back to Basics”..............................18 “How to Lead and Influence Change”...................................................22 “Sales Success: It's All About Emotion”................................................25 “How to Make Cold Calling Opportunities Out of Voice Mails”..............28 “Do’s and Don’ts for Prospecting and Cold Calls”................................31 “Voice Mail Can Be Your Buddy”..........................................................34 “Create Trust, Gain a Client”................................................................38 “Overcoming Sales Call Reluctance Must Be Done to Build Business”. 45 “The Silver Bullet in Sales – Yes Virginia There is a Silver Bullet”........48 “To Powerpoint or Not to Powerpoint?”................................................52 “Teaching Consequences to Your Prospects”.......................................55 “The Power of Persuasion: Logic, Emotion, and Character”.................61 “Negotiating the Price You Deserve: The Salesperson's Dilemma”......64 “The American Idol Philosophy of Selling”............................................67 “What Every Sales Person Should Know About Women Car Buyers”. . .70 “Managing the Millennials”...................................................................72 “Be Realistic: There is no Limit to What You Can Do”..........................77 “9 Voice Mail Blunders: Strategies and Tactics to Tackle Voice Mail”. .80 “Success in a Heartbeat”.....................................................................85 “Avoiding Sales Burnout”.....................................................................88 “Customers for Life”.............................................................................90 “Are Your Salespeople Selling to the Right Accounts?”........................94 “Become Fully Accountable For Your Success”....................................97 “Assumptions – The Hidden Sales Killer”............................................103 “Selling Value with Persuasion”.........................................................106 “What you can learn from The Movie Business”................................111 “Defining Consultative Selling”..........................................................114 “How To Seal The Deal In Seven Seconds”........................................116 “7 Steps to Immediately Increase Your Sales By 20% or More”.........119 “Why Changing Your Tagline May Be a Mistake”...............................122 “Four Common Words That Will Ruin Your Sale”................................125 “Creating Client Trust”.......................................................................129 “The End of Cold Calling?”.................................................................134 “Top 10 E's to Motivate and Influence an Audience”.........................137 “It's The Sales Process That Sells, Not the Salesperson”...................139 “Top 10 Business Plan Myths of Solo Entrepreneurs”........................142 “Become the Complete Package in Sales”.........................................146 “The three biggest challenges salespeople face today”....................148 “24/7 Customer Centric”....................................................................151 Featured Articles – SalesPractice.com

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“8 Strategies to Guarantee Success in Cold Calling”.........................154 “Why Referral Sources Go Sour”........................................................157

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ABOUT THIS E-BOOK This e-book is a collection of works from various authors whose articles are featured at SalesPractice.com, a member-driven sales training community and information center. All articles in this eBook are copyright © protected by their respective authors.


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“Money Objections: It’s Never About The Money” by Sharon Drew Morgen View Profile | Visit Website After having several conversations with a new prospect and his team, we all decided to move forward and get them trained in Buying Facilitation. As per our agreement, I wrote up a contract and sent it out to “Joe”. Then I got an email from him saying he needed to put the program on hold for six months at least, so that his new hires could prove their value and start earning money. “How can they start earning money if they won’t get their training for several months? And what skills will you offer them, given they will now be learning Buying Facilitation after they’ve already begun selling the conventional way?” My prospect gave me very short, almost unintelligible responses. Finally, he admitted that the COO called him in as my contract come over his desk, saying that if they were going to spend ‘that kind of money’ on sales training, they had better have a team in place that was worth it and had earned it. Joe was both angry and embarrassed: he had thought he was the decision maker, given it was his own budget, etc. and “Frank” hadn’t exhibited any interest in sales training before this. For me, what appeared to be a ‘closed’ sale, had just become a money objection from a “C” level executive who had no idea who I was, what I was offering, or how to put a value on it. Joe and I put our heads together, and decided to have Frank call me to discuss it. We believed that if I could lead Frank through the Buying Facilitation Method® system, he’d be able to decide for himself. I knew I’d have to handle both the money objections and the phone objections, as Frank believed that no business could be handled on the phone. I also had to walk an interesting line in re Joe: indeed, Frank was stepping on Joe’s toes and superseding Joe’s authority as a seasoned VP of Sales. Here is what happened. Here is the call, and I’m including commentary for those times during the call when I had decisions to make. To help you follow along the Buying Facilitation Method®, the questions are, for the most part, Facilitative Questions, and the summaries are Presumptive Summaries. THE CALL


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As per arrangement, Frank called. His voice was tough, crisp, and in charge. “I understand you’ve been speaking with Joe about doing some training. I’m OK with that [If he were “OK with that” we wouldn’t be having this conversation.]. He’s got his own budget, but with so many new folks, it’ll have to wait until they prove themselves. And if you want to have a discussion with me about it, you’ll have to come here to visit us (a three hour drive each way). It would probably be a good idea for us to meet anyway. I’m curious to meet someone who charges that much for a training program.” “Gosh, I hate to drive. Hmmmm. How ‘bout if we meet halfway – we’ll each drive one and one half hours,” I said. “You want ME to drive??” “Oh. You hate to drive also. Hmm. I have an idea. Since neither of us want to drive, how ‘bout if we spend a few moments on the phone, and see where we stand. We might end up hating each other and there won’t be any need for either of us to drive.” “Sounds reasonable,” said Frank. SDM: I hear you are having thoughts about my prices. F: Well, they are higher than I’ve ever heard of for sales training. But of course, if we end up getting fair value for it, it would have been worth it. SDM: Given you don’t know who I am, what I’ve developed, what your folks would learn, what it is about the system that is worth more than conventional training, or how to know upfront if you’d get value from it, you must be uncomfortable. F: Not uncomfortable, exactly, because I trust Joe’s decision making [He obviously didn’t trust Joe enough!]. But you’re correct. I’m not happy spending that kind of money for something I believe I can get cheaper. [Good for him. He’s put his cards on the table. Shows a certain level of trust.] SDM: So how would you know that Buying Facilitation – the new paradigm selling model I’ve developed and will be teaching Joe’s folks – offers a new set of skills that would actually give you the type of ROI that you’re seeking? F: I wouldn’t. I’d just have to take Joe’s word for it. [I recognized that he didn’t offer to read or learn anything. That gave me an interesting dilemma: he was leaving me no opening, wasn’t taking Joe’s word, and didn’t offer any opening to change his opinion.]


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SDM: I wonder if there is a way that you could get to learn enough about Buying Facilitation to give you comfort, get you to recognize its value, and see if it’s the sort of model that would make it possible to get your numbers up to where you want them to be. What would need to happen for us to figure out a way for you to get comfortable here? F: I suppose I should know something about the Model. Is there something you can send me so I can learn about it? [Ah. An opening.] Obviously if Joe is willing to use his entire training budget to bring this in, it must have value and it would probably be good for me to learn about it. What else would you suggest I do? [I must take care to continue helping his decision making process. If I pitch now, I’ve lost the beginnings of the trust he’s offering because he still doesn’t know how to choose me; giving him information here will be moot.] SDM: I can send you some essays, and Joe has a copy of my ebook you can read. I hope you enjoy them. I understand that before we move forward, you’d have to figure out what my value is. [I’ve moved the conversation from ‘trusting Joe’ to the real issue: why would he be willing to pay a lot for something he perceived he could get cheaper?] How would you know that my program is worth what I’m charging? F: I probably wouldn’t know until after the program. SDM: And then it becomes like a Bungee jump – you won’t know if it’s going to work until after you’ve jumped. And then it’s too late. We all laughed. SDM: So, what would you need to understand about Buying Facilitation that would help you understand that it would give your people a new set of tools to double their numbers, as you’ve required? F: You’re saying that it’s a different model from sales? That’s interesting. [I hadn’t told him that, but my Facilitative Question implied it.] I guess if we kept using the same selling model we’d keep getting the same results. Different from sales. Hm. And I’ll be able understand the Model from what I’m going to read? [Although I was absolutely dying to give a pitch somewhere in here, Frank never asked me to explain anything. All of his learning criteria were based on reading something, not hearing something.] SDM: Correct. And it seems that prior to moving forward, you would like to understand the Model, who I am, and what the material will do for you. [I was pushing a bit here so I could name his apparent criteria for him, since he just gave me a bit of leverage.]


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F: You’re right. But I bet Joe did his homework already, and has this under control? [His level of trust was now pretty high for both me and Joe. But he evaded my question again, so I had to let him off the hook to stay in rapport.] SDM: I think we all hope you’re right. We all laughed again. SDM: What would need to happen for you to get comfortable enough for us to move forward in the time frame that best suits your company given the revenue increases you’re seeking for next year? F: Tell you what. I’ll read whatever you send me. If it’s as good as I assume it must be for Joe to go out on a limb like this, given that he’s had to do some hard thinking to figure out how to meet the objectives I’ve given him, I’ll give Joe a tacit agreement to move forward when he thinks it would suit him best. [It seems I’ve proven myself, and the money objection is gone.] But I’d like to call you with questions if you don’t mind. And, when we’re ready to sign the contract, let’s do it over lunch – my treat – and we’ll drive up and meet you half way. Joe and I burst out laughing. After a moment Frank starting laughing too. F: I suppose you just used the model on me, right?? You haven’t sold me a thing – no pitch, no presentation. You just helped me decide how to choose you. And I’m hoping this is what you’re going to teach my folks. Not only did I not want to sign the contract when I began, but I didn’t believe it was possible to use the phone for anything more than getting an appointment. This conversation will also get me to reconsider my predisposition to using the phone only for making appointments. Thanks, Sharon Drew. I’m excited. And I’ll even pay for lunch when we meet. MONEY OBJECTIONS Objections happen only when someone’s criteria are being pushed; money objections occur when folks don’t understand value. And telling them what the value is by pitching, handling objections, or presenting, doesn’t help. When two things appear equal, the only differential is money. When value is understood, money is not the criteria. In this conversation, I had to deal with several things: 1. Frank’s fear of spending ‘that kind of money’ on something he understood to cost a lot less, over-rode his trust in a senior executive; 2. because Frank couldn’t say that he didn’t trust Joe, he used the excuse of working with a ‘proven’ team and Featured Articles – SalesPractice.com

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moved the training forward several months – and we know what would happen then, given they’d be using the same sales skills they used when they weren’t getting the success he wanted; 3. he hated doing business on the phone; 4. he had no idea who I was, and was so confident in his understanding of the necessary criteria (i.e. ‘sales training’ cost X) that had no criteria around figuring out why I might be worth it. If you go back to the conversation, you’ll note that I never made a pitch, that I kept going back into the issues and making Frank make his own decisions that would lead him to figuring out for himself how to choose me and my material. And although I never made a pitch, the way I worded my Presumptive Summaries and my Facilitative Questions led him to understand what I was selling, and my value as a Partner. Also, it was a very ‘pushy’ dialogue. The conversation might appear at first glance to be soft, but indeed it was very controlled and relentless: I kept leading him into making the decisions he needed to make. At no point did I defend my price or change it – we never had to get into that. Note that if I started pitching product, and defended price, the conversation wouldn’t have gotten very far. Price wasn’t the issue: it was his discomfort not knowing how to spend ‘that sort of money’ for something that was new to him. I just lead Frank to all of the decisions he’d need to make to justify my price to himself. He had to recognize his own criteria – which he never really shared – and make a quick, internal, judgment call as to whether or not it was being met. I had no way of knowing if he successfully did this except by hearing how he eventually accepted my agreements with Joe. It was all hidden from me, and even if I understood what was going on for him, it wouldn’t have mattered. HE needed to understand, and make some sense of it all. And he did. Once he found a route through, he could go back to trusting Joe’s decision. All I did was to facilitate his decision. I didn’t sell a thing. BUYING FACILITATION In terms of the parts of Buying Facilitation that I used, I did a lot of Presumptive Summaries that showed Frank his unspoken beliefs, and then led him to the decisions he had to make to trust me and Joe. And most importantly, I taught him how to decide what ‘value’ he might get, even though he had no content to work from. I operated out of the following assumptions: that any COO wants what’s best for his/her company; Featured Articles – SalesPractice.com

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that Frank would have preferred to trust his VP, all else being equal; that money is an objection only when a product seems the same as other products in the same category and there is no means to differentiate; that if I could get Frank to figure out for himself how he needed to figure it out, he’d make the best decision (and telling him what I thought he needed to know to figure it out wouldn’t get either of us very far); that no matter where it went, I had to work with it: it wasn’t about my product, my price, or my delivery. Frank was smart. He figured it out. I didn’t pitch, present or propose. I didn’t have to handle objections or prove my value. I used the phone to help him make a six figure decision and didn’t have to meet him in person. All I did was lead him through his own decision criteria to his own best decision. That is our new job as sellers: help our buyers make their own best decisions, using their own criteria, and use our Facilitative Questions to help them position our product as their own solution. It’s ethical, based on win-win, truly supportive of a collaborative Partnership, and uses no manipulation or influencing strategies. Ultimately, it trusts that the Buyer will come up with his/her own best answers, and if me and my product fit into the Buyer’s solution, I’ll be chosen. Would you rather sell? Or have someone buy.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Sharon Drew Morgen, author of New York Times Business Bestseller Selling with Integrity and maverick innovator of the decision support model Buying Facilitation, is now offering opportunities in the States for small- to mid-sized training companies to license her innovative material and join a group of international Licensing Partners. View Profile | Visit Website


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“Imagine That! (The Role of the Imagination in Buying Decisions)” by Skip Anderson View Profile | Visit Website A few years ago, a friend of mine had been asked out by a new guy in her life. After their date, she provided a review of the evening. “I know it sounds crazy to say this after only one date,” she insisted, ”but I could see myself marrying this guy!” Being married myself, I believe marriages occur first in the partners’ imaginations, and then—if fate and practicality cooperate—in reality. At some point during my friend’s first date with this guy, her imagination “software” began running. This software let her picture herself in a marriage relationship with her new acquaintance, even though the two had just met. This “software” is the imagination. Customers are like that, too. Just as a single woman who wants to be married keeps her eyes open to possibilities (and yes, men do it, too), prospects keep their eyes open as they shop around. Prospects explore the possibilities, and when they do, their imaginations are active and alert, and often intense. When selling, imaginations are a force to be reckoned with. Enter the EEG: Electroencephalography The EEG is a device that uses electrodes attached to a subject’s scalp to measure electrical activity in the brain. But what does this have to do with selling? Or with buying? Let’s imagine you are a real estate agent who is working with a couple who is shopping for their first home. And let’s say your prospects’ heads are connected to EEG units which will provide a way to see their brain activity as they shop. As the couples’ afternoon of house hunting begins with home number one, we can see the electrical activity within the brain accelerate, thanks to the EEG unit. The couple looks around this house - their eyes darting about - while they unknowingly involve their imaginations in the process. Their active brainwaves are obvious. Their imaginations are titillated as they explore. The Shopping Experience Featured Articles – SalesPractice.com

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Our couples’ olfactory systems (the smelling mechanism) are being bombarded with the smells they encounter in the home, both good and bad. As they continue their walk-through, their ears perk-up as they hear the creek of a loose floorboard. The solid sound of kitchen cabinet drawers shutting as they try them out several times also registers in their brainwaves. Their eyes are in the process of evaluating the many visual features of the home, such as the style of windows and the stone of the fireplace. Fingers and hands go into action as they feel the wood railing and the kitchen countertops. As they manipulate the faucets and light switches, they imagine what it would be like to own this home. As they tour, the prospect’s mentally place their existing furniture inside the family room and master bedroom. Questions me to mind: Will their sofa fit? How about the dining table? Will the beige walls do? Or would they prefer a bolder design statement that Tandy Red or Persimmon Mist paint would provide? The shoppers’ brainwaves are hyperactive now. The couple imagines their children frolicking in the family room in front of the fireplace on a chilled winter day, the family dog hopping from child to child. The shoppers picture family and friends hanging out in the kitchen before a perfect meal that includes their famous Rigatoni al Carbonara. As the shoppers peer into the backyard, their imaginations hold the promise of many summer cook-outs, and thoughts of playing with their kids. Preliminary plans for a new patio with a fire pit begin to take shape in the imaginations of our prospects. The Evaluation During all of this activity, the couple has been imagining what it would be like to live in this home. With the tour complete, the couple will now evaluate how well their imaginations have indicated to them that this house will fit their needs. If their imaginations provided enough inspiration, the couple may discuss making an offer to purchase the home. The Role of the Salesperson During the sales process, salespeople can help ignite the imaginations of their prospects. Salespeople would be well-served to ask their prospects questions that encourage imagination. Questions such as: ▪ How do you think your furniture would fit in this space? ▪ How would it feel when you came home from work and pulled into Featured Articles – SalesPractice.com

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this garage? ▪ The previous owners have said that the view of the lake from the family room when the sun is setting is very romantic. How would you feel about that? ▪ How would you change the back yard? What would you plant? What would you spend time doing in your backyard? ▪ Which bedroom would be your daughter’s? Which one would be for your son? The Power of An Active Imagination Many salespeople simply don’t realize the role an active imagination plays in their prospects’ buying decisions. Instead of captivating and igniting their prospects’ imaginations, they choose instead to declare copious facts and figures in an effort to influence the prospect’s logical thinking, believing this will help create a decision to buy. But even logical people make buying decisions for all types of products and services in their imaginations first, and in reality second. Prospects require a potential product or service to pass their “imagination test” first, before logic will be allowed to play much of a role in the purchasing decision. This doesn’t just happen with home buyers, it happens with prospects who are considering the purchase of lawnmowers, water softeners, and dance lessons. The purchase of my last vehicle began in my imagination. I imagined my daughter and our dog in the back seat on a camping trip in the mountains. My wife was happily at my side, and a large diet soda was sitting at the ready in the conveniently-located cupholder. Indeed, I bought that SUV in my imagination first, and then bought it in reality. Your customers do the same thing. Happily Ever After My friend married the new guy after a couple years of dating, but there’s no question that the marriage started back on that first date. . . in my friend’s imagination. To achieve top performance in selling, remember that purchase decisions work the same way. If you can help your prospects’ to imagine what it would be like to own and use your product or service, you will sell more.


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ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Skip Anderson is a recognized expert on consumer selling. He is the founder of Selling to Consumers, a B2C sales training and consulting company working in the areas of retail sales training, home improvement sales training, and real estate sales training. He is a frequent speaker on maximizing sales opportunities. Get the free Selling to Consumers Sales Tips Newsletter at www.SellingToConsumers.com. View Profile | Visit Website


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“Hit or Miss Does Not Work in Selling” by Alen Majer View Profile | Visit Website Many sales are lost because salespeople assume they know what the customer wants. Sales people like to made assumptions of knowledge about what the buyer wants and needs, or sometimes more important why the buyer might be motivated to buy. Using one’s instincts and sixth sense is fine in the equation of success, but it should be only part of your expertise. Consequently, through unorganized, hit-or-miss methods, his cost of selling is high simply because his methods are not as efficient as they should be. This does not mean you shouldn’t use your instincts and training well. But it does mean that your sales assumptions must be based in a finding of facts, not guesses. Using the dart game in the sales profession can lead to failure. You have limited time on your sales call to a prospective buyer and your darts must hit their mark. It’s even more crucial when you use the phone for your sales prospecting activities: many telephone sales calls miss their mark as being off-the-shelf calls that aren’t developed with a specific buyer in mind. Dartboard selling is a quick way to go broke. Top notch salespeople advise that 75% of a successful sale is due to the pre-flight work. You must make sure you know what direction you want to go in, and you have to ask precise questions that will lead you to confirm needs you recognized through trigger events. You must know what direction to fly before your takeoff. Most sales people out there are making a huge mistake meeting (or talking over the phone) with their clients unprepared. They think it is enough to schedule the meeting and they will work their magic and close the deal. They will try to break the ice with the customer by talking about the stuff in his office. Then the next misstep is to ask a few questions and not even wait for the answers, but to start with the same old sales pitch. This kind of salesperson knows all the answers and few features and benefits later they will ask for the business. After hearing few “No’s” from customer they may give up and leave the office with the promise


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of a follow up a few days later. Unfortunately, the down side is that the customer will probably never return their calls. Big number of sales people does not take the time to have a conversation with their customers, because they assume that every other customer is like all the others. You will discover that your previous assumptions in sales were fatal many times. Keep those times in the past. It was necessary for you to learn a lesson every salesperson needs to learn, and now is the time to grow and develop your skills and knowledge. You will do so in developing your knowledge about trigger events. It is time to replace assumptions with research. When you start learning how to recognize trigger events, rather than trying to assume or guess at them, will not only enhance your professional sales career and knowledge, but will increase your sales savvy to what the customer needs. It is mind-boggling to receive a sales telephone call and the caller spits out a menu of mechanical words. The customer isn’t even, it seems, invited to be part of the conversation. It’s all about the need of the seller. Now when you contact your customers with information collected from recognized trigger events, you will have right questions to ask them, and all you need to do is listen to their answers and reshape your presentation accordingly. Start with understanding customer’s actual situation and have their needs on your mind, but also find the way to put them on the market by making them realize their yet uncovered needs. I hope you realize how often you barked up the wrong tree in your prospecting activities, talking to companies without the real need, following up and leaving numerous messages to someone who doesn't see the value in your product. It is time to move on. Of course, at one time when we were starting sales, we all may have wasted our time that way, calling people from the long list of unqualified prospects we got from our manager, simply because they were in our territory or vertical market. Now you will have a very powerful tool to change your approach to selling. You have to understand the positioning of the company, what are they needs, does not matter if they are hidden or visible to public eye. You need to do this ahead of the first contact as part of your trigger events research. You have to know the customer’s situation better Featured Articles – SalesPractice.com

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than perhaps they know it, because at the time of presentation of your product, you will have their needs on your mind and prepare your sales presentation accordingly to information you hold. Think value. Give to the customer what they ask for; give them what they need and more, drive the conversation to the customer's wants and needs. Impress them with the depth of your understanding of their position on the market and recent events that can trigger buying process, and they will sign on dotted line. Very often you can hear how selling is a form of art, how sales people need to be creative and use their imagination, but I am not agreeing with that – sales is more science than anything. Yes you can use imagination and creativity, but after using tools available to you. With the proper tools and techniques you’ll replace guesswork with success. Even if your company does not have automated system to generate new leads for you, when you learn more about trigger events from this book, you will be able to find your next customer by your own. This will send the message to your manager that you care about your job and you really want to develop your career further, without waiting for someone. Becoming best in team is an achievable goal and your self-confidence is growing as you establish a competitive advantage towards your colleges and towards your competition. You don’t need to use old sales excuses anymore, like “territory is too small”, “need more training”, “inadequate sales tools”, “marketing provides no leads”, “we are over priced” etc. Numbers of sales people who lose their jobs or miss their quota each year are not really important to you anymore, because you are more confident that you know what you doing in your sales role and all thanks to getting new customers from trigger events. Now you are becoming a real Sales Professional. And it is a good feeling having control over your sales career, isn’t it? Read more about Selling in 21st Century and about trigger events (where to find them and how to use them) in my book "Trigger Events - How to Find Your Next Customer".


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ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Alen Majer consults businesses on a variety of topics ranging from improving sales processes and developing better customer relationships to improving internal sales forces skills. He knows the secret of sales and is sharing it, and after over 15 years in sales he still believes this is the most exciting, best payable, and most secure job position in the world! View Profile | Visit Website


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“When The Going Gets Tough, Go Back to Basics” by Anne Miller View Profile | Visit Website By Two things are on my mind this month. The first is surviving in a tough market. The second is an unexpected sales reminder that I experienced on my recent trip to South Africa. Surviving in a Tough Market What goes up must inevitably come down, although none of us likes to believe that truism when we're up in the clouds. But what do you do when budgets are tightening and buyer confidence is uncertain? Don't panic. Instead, get back to basics, become more disciplined, and be more creative than ever: · Review every existing account. Remember, your best prospects are your best customers. Get face time with key players at more than one level. Make sure you are up to date on their current challenges. · Assume nothing. Don't think that your accounts know all about you, your services, your new products, your markets, your competitive strengths. Even if they can't buy from you right now, use this time to build your brand and to show you're there for them in all kinds of markets, so that you are the first call when conditions improve. · Know your own products, services, and markets cold. That way, you can be responsive to clients' needs. It's a good time to visit other departments in your own organization to find out what they are seeing, hearing, doing, creating, experiencing. I can't tell you how many times I've heard salespeople admit that they didn't realize what was available from their own research, marketing, product development, or technical people. Meet with colleagues to share and borrow sales ideas and techniques. · Play the numbers. The more contacts you have with accounts, the more likely you'll win business. Set specific weekly goals for face-toface calls with current clients, new business calls, and number of proposals sent -- and stick to those goals.

· Leave no stone unturned. Connect with past accounts. Needs change. People switch jobs. Mergers happen. Management philosophies change. You could be the solution to someone's problem and not know it. · Think creatively. Network at off-beat but related conferences. Send attention-grabbing new-business letters. Read your clients' press opportunistically. Prospect smarter; for instance, call the names of people listed as contacts in corporate ads or mentioned in articles. Skip the traditional information/benefit presentations, and add more dramatic touches to build perceived value for your product/service. (Hire me to do an "Outrageous Thinking & Other Acts of Sales Wizardry" seminar for you. Now, that's a good idea!) · Hone your skills. As in golf or tennis, when you stop practicing and taking lessons, your game tends to deteriorate. Your sales game is no different. It's time to sharpen your prospecting, preparing, questioning, presenting, closing, negotiating, follow-up, and creative-thinking skills. Over-the-transom business is history. Sloppy selling is an unaffordable luxury. The formula for surviving -- and in fact thriving -- in a weakened economy is this: · Get back to basics. · Be superdisciplined. · Think creatively. South Africa So we taxi out onto the tarmac for our 10-minute flight to Skukuza for a connection to Johannesburg, from which we would go to our next destination, Victoria Falls. We're in a six-seater. We're full of expectations and taking our last look at our send-off party, a group of zebras lined up at the edge of the airstrip, which is no more than a tar road in the middle of an open field; but we quickly realize that the pilot (who looks all of about 21) is having trouble getting the second of the two engines to start. He guns it a few times. The propeller spins, the engine sputters, and both stop dead. He tries again. Nothing. He gets out of the plane to investigate more closely. He gets back into the plane. He guns it again. Silence. Resisting the urge to scream, "Let us outta here!" we all anxiously wait for his verdict. Finally, to everyone's relief, he declares the plane out of service.


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However, canceling the flight presents a new problem. We still have to get to Skukuza. That 10-minute flight becomes a very bumpy, one-hour Land Rover ride over a single-lane, rutted, dirt-and-stone road, occasionally interrupted by an impala sighting. The result: We miss our flight to Victoria Falls and are now unexpectedly stuck in Johannesburg at 2 p.m. with nothing to do until the next flight the next morning. Here comes the sales lesson. We call our local agents at Afro Ventures who had booked the plane for us, explain the dilemma, and ask them to book us at one of the airport hotels for the evening. We resign ourselves to a fairly boring afternoon and a lost half-day of vacation. However, they do much better than that. They arrange for all transfers as well as dinner and room fees, and they put us up 30 minutes away at a beautiful hotel connected to a mall so that we have something to do for the rest of the day. Talk about customer service beyond the call of duty! The result is that we have a lovely afternoon and evening, see a suburb of Johannesburg we would have never seen, and feel somewhat better about missing half a day in Victoria Falls. I don't know what it cost Afro Ventures to give us that evening, but I can tell you that they earned it back many times over in our gratitude, satisfaction, and eagerness to refer them to others -- which I will do in a moment. Sales lesson: Although business is measured by the bottom line, sometimes it is better business to bump the bottom line for the service line. Indeed, for the thousands of you who most likely have never heard of South Africa–based Afro Ventures, and for the few of you who will one day need a travel agent for your vacation to that country, I enthusiastically refer you to www.afroventures.com. For the record, I've been all over the world for business and vacations and can say unequivocally that South Africa is one of the best places in the world to go on holiday. Email me if you'd like specific suggestions. Until the next time, successful selling!


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ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Internationally respected author, speaker and seminar leader, Anne Miller teaches sales people how to increase their business; coaches CEOs and senior management to communicate successfully to key constituencies; and enables technical people to transform complex information into simpler, meaningful messages. View Profile | Visit Website


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“How to Lead and Influence Change” by Anne Warfield View Profile | Visit Website You know for years we have held the majestic eagle as our sign of a good leader. It soars so high above everyone else, has a beautiful wingspan, eyes that can see it's prey from miles away and uncanny accuracy in getting it's food. Definitely a leader. Definitely something we should admire and look up to. Definitely the way we should be if we want to lead, right? Wrong! I think eagles are one of the worst animals we can model after as leaders. You see, they don't play as a team. They build their nests in cliffs where no one has access to them. They take care of their young only. They do everything for their young and when they feel they are ready they just push them out of the nest and say, "fly or die" Now I ask you, is that a warm environment to work in? We need a new way to look at leadership. You see, leadership is no longer a position, it is a way of thinking. So whether you are a secretary, a foreman, a sales person or an executive you all should be leaders. You should feel you are the master of your workspace every day. And every day you should ask whether you would hire yourself tomorrow if you were the owner. In order to be a good leader there are several key traits you need to exhibit. First you need to be a clear communicator. You need to have a clear vision that you can share with others. Most companies I meet with have a long mission statement that even the CEO can't remember. A good mission statement should be one you can wrap your arms around and use to judge whether you did a good job today. When Les Wexner, Chairman of Limited designed Victoria's Secret his mission was "to design a store where Cybill Shepherd would love to shop for lingerie". This gave his people a clear vision of what to look for as they designed the store. Bill Gates mission is to "put a computer on every desk". This is something tangible that every person can see and can act in accordance with. One telephone company I worked with switched their mission statement to "your best friend's on the line." This way every person could make sure their voice tone, and actions matched what they would do for their best friend. Within 3 months their sales rocketed to the highest they had ever had. Now, you might be saying, but wait that is the CEO's job to come up


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with our mission statement. Not so. You should get together with the other people in your department and decide what is the one key reason you are all there. What is the one result you all want to see and then come up with a mission statement that fits that goal and gives passion to your team. The second key ingredient in a leader is they are very "WE" focused. They see themselves as supporting others and working towards a united outcome. They are willing to take all blame and share all victories. They don't worry about how to make their job easier, they worry about doing what is right. If you are a true leader you will share information you have with others. You will want to draw out the best in others. Job descriptions become irrelevant. What is most important is what needs to be done to get the result you desire. You will think outside the box and work for solutions never thought of before. Finger pointing doesn't happen with true leaders. They instead want to know how the problem can be fixed. They want to know what caused it so people can learn from it and not repeat it. They do not shame or embarrass others. They are the first to point out good things that others do. Good leaders lead as well as follow. They don't worry about how others perceive them. They know that some of the best ideas can come from others around them so they keep their ears open. They know that in order to lead they need to continually learn so they see themselves as teachers and students at the same time. They welcome new ideas and suggestions from others. "A leader is not someone you look up to because they are the best. A true leader is someone that looks in to you and draws out your best." Anne Warfield And lastly, good leaders are willing to set guidelines. They know that in order to do a good job people need to know what is expected of them. They need to know the outcome they are working towards and they need to know what flexibility they have with decisions. Good leaders will share all that needs to be shared so people can achieve results. They look to shatter paradigms and see things in a new way. So ask yourself, do you lead or do you follow? Do you take risks at your company or do you strictly follow policy? Are things going on at your company that you think should change? If so, have you taken the time to offer your ideas and suggestions? Do you take charge and work as a team? I would like to see a new mode of leaders. Not eagles, that can be Featured Articles – SalesPractice.com

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loners. From this day on think of yourself as a goose. You see, geese fly in a V formation. And since the lead position is tiring, the lead goose will fly to the back and new goose will take the front position. Because their outcome has been clearly communicated they don't worry about flying off course. If one goose gets hurt, then two geese fly down to take care of the wounded goose. They never leave one goose out to struggle on its own. Just imagine how your company would soar if it was full of geese as leaders!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: As the leading Outcome Strategist, Anne Warfield shows people how to present their ideas, products and services so people WANT to listen to you. Her communication formula is easy to apply and produces proven results. Fortune 500 companies around the world have utilized her expertise and her work is published around the world. View Profile | Visit Website


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“Sales Success: It's All About Emotion” by Alan Rigg View Profile | Visit Website Do you have trouble convincing prospects to make the time to speak with you? Is your sales opportunity pipeline full of stalled opportunities? Do you find it difficult to close sales? Each of these challenges can result from a single flaw in the sales process -- failure to engage your prospects' emotions. Why is engaging your prospects' emotions so critical to sales success? Let's answer that question by looking at each challenge individually. 1. Difficulty Booking Appointments Do you think your prospects sitting around thinking, "Gee, I hope some salespeople call me today?" Of course they aren't! Your prospects are very busy people. They have a lot of work to do, they have personal issues to deal with, and they are constantly being bombarded by marketing messages, e-mails, phone calls, cell phone calls, etc. How can you break through what your prospect is focused on when they pick up the phone and grab his or her attention? Will droning a bland overview of your company and its capabilities do it? Will rattling off a list of features and benefits do it? Or, do you think it might be more effective to use emotionally compelling words that help your prospect visualize painful problems and actually feel the pain in their guts? NOTE: Direct marketing campaign analyses have repeatedly shown response rates to be higher for campaigns where advertisements focus on problems rather than solutions. 2. Stalled Opportunities Do you know what the #1 issue is that causes sales opportunities to stall? Most opportunities are never qualified properly in the first place! Most salespeople enjoy managing sales cycles more than they enjoy prospecting. If a prospect expresses even the slightest interest in a product or service, these salespeople are delighted to jump through any number of hoops to try to turn the "opportunities" into sales.


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What's the problem? The problem is there are only so many selling hours in each day. Plus, most companies have limited resources they can apply to supporting sales cycles. If a prospect does not have one or more truly compelling business problems, and key decision makers do not feel significant pain from those business problems, what are the chances they will decide to invest to solve the problems? One of the most effective actions you can take to minimize stalled opportunities is to learn how to do an extraordinary job of opportunity qualification. How many business problems does each prospect have that you can help them solve? How compelling is each business problem? Do the key decision makers really care about the problems? Does the company have the financial wherewithal necessary to pay for solving the problems? If you find that a prospect's business problems are not very compelling, or you find they may have trouble financing a solution to their problems, don't waste your time! Instead, apply your time to looking for better prospects! If you only invest time in serious prospects who are emotionally engaged in the sales process, you will minimize the number of stalled opportunities in your pipeline. 3. Opportunities That Don't Close If a prospect's emotions are not invested in solving a problem, how likely is it that they will make solving that problem a priority? Of course, if you do not also provide a sound financial justification to support a prospect's buying decision, you may run into another problem, buyer's remorse. Still, getting a prospect emotionally engaged is the critical first step in motivating them to take action. Isn't Engaging a Prospect's Emotions Manipulative? No, it isn't. If you are going to be a true sales professional, you need to choose carefully where and how you invest your time. Who wins when you invest your time in prospects that don't have the kinds of problems you can solve? No one! Who wins when you invest your time (and your company's resources) in helping prospects solve problems that are so compelling that both the prospect's company and your company are justified in investing time and resources to explore possible solutions? Everyone! Conclusion


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If you want to increase the number of appointments you book through your prospecting efforts, you need to come up with compelling answers to the following questions: What can I say to a prospect in 20-30 seconds that will engage his or her emotions? What are the most painful problems that I can help my prospects solve? How can I help my prospects relive the pain that is caused by these problems? If you want to minimize the number of stalled opportunities in your sales opportunity pipeline and maximize your close rate, put extra focus on the quality of your sales opportunity qualification by answering the following questions: How many business problems can you help each prospect solve? How compelling is each business problem? Do the problems elicit emotional responses from your prospects? Remember, engaging your prospects' emotions is critical to the entire sales process, from sales prospecting through closing sales. Learn how to focus on engaging your prospects' emotions, and watch your sales production soar!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: A 20-year student of selling and sales management, Alan is the author of “How to Beat the 80/20 Rule in Sales Team Performance” and “How to Beat the 80/20 Rule in Selling”. He is the president of the Arizona chapter of the National Speakers Association and has delivered his unique insights into sales and sales management via live and recorded speeches, workshops, web conferences, and radio talk shows. View Profile | Visit Website


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“How to Make Cold Calling Opportunities Out of Voice Mails” by Ari Galper View Profile | Visit Website Turn voice mails into a cold calling journey of discovery! Most people who still use the traditional cold calling mindset look at voicemail as a dead end. They say to themselves, “Oh well, I may as well leave a message and hope he calls me back.” This almost never happens, and we know it. But we’re often so relieved not to have to talk with someone, that we leave a message anyway. We avoid dealing with another person’s potential negative response to us and we avoid being challenged by the receptionist as well. By the time the day is over, we might feel good because we’ve played the “numbers game” and made a lot of calls. But our productivity has been minimal. And over time that can make us feel frustrated by our experiences in cold calling. With the new approach to cold calling, voicemail is an opportunity for discovery. It leads us beyond voicemail. Voice mail becomes a starting point for you begin the process of locating the person you’re trying to contact. Our objective is not to pursue people to make a sale in this new way of cold calling. It is to uncover the truth of their situation and to be okay with the outcome, whether it’s a “yes” or a “no.” So we can begin to feel more comfortable hitting “0” when we get someone’s voicemail. Because we then have an opportunity to go back to the receptionist and begin a dialogue based on asking for help. Here’s how the dialogue might go: “Hi, maybe you can help me out for a second? I’m trying to get hold of Mike and I got his voicemail. Would you happen to know if he’s at lunch, or on vacation, or in a meeting by any chance?” Here, you aren’t just asking to find Mike. And you’re also providing possible solutions to finding Mike. This helps the receptionist feel as if he or she is part of the problem-solving process.


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The receptionist is likely to offer one of two responses. The first is, “Yes, he’s in a meeting (or at lunch or on vacation) and I’m not sure when he’ll be back at his desk.” This answer has just given you a lot more information than you would have if you had just left a voicemail. Now you know your contact’s whereabouts in real time and you can call back at a more appropriate time. The second response is, “No, I don’t know where he is.” In this case, you would reply, “That’s not a problem…” This low-key statement diffuses any possible pressure that the receptionist might be feeling about not being able to answer your question. You can then continue with, “Would you happen to know anyone whose desk or office is near him or who works in his area who might know where he is?” Again, you’re offering another option for solving the problem. In many cases, the receptionist will then transfer you to a colleague of your contact who can help you determine his or her whereabouts. The receptionist may also reply, “No, I don’t know anyone in his area.” You then say, “That’s not a problem…” and offer, “Would you happen to have a paging system or his cell phone number by any chance?” If the receptionist replies, “Sorry, we don’t have those,” then at that point you can say, “Thank you very much. I really appreciate your help. And then hang up, and call back another time. Does the idea of paging potential clients or calling them on their cell phone make your stomach clench up? Are you thinking that you can’t cold call people that way because they might reject you? That fear is only to be expected if your agenda is to sell something to the person. In other words, if you’re still using the traditional sales mindset. But once you master the new cold calling perspective, you’ll feel comfortable calling anyone, any time, using any mode. As long as you’re 100 percent focused on your potential client’s world, you’ll find that people will be receptive to you. You can easily navigate throughout an organization with the type of dialogue described above, because you’re asking for help in a relaxed manner and you never put anyone on the spot.


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Suppose that your efforts to locate your contact in this way fail. At that point you can leave a voicemail, but it should always be your very last option. Here’s an example of an appropriate cold calling voicemail: “Hi John, maybe you can help me out for a second? I’m not sure if you’re the right person or not, but I’m trying to reach the person responsible for reporting problems about unpaid invoices. My name is John Edwards, my number is…” Try this way of approaching the situation of voice mails, and you’ll be surprised and pleased at how often it becomes a highway instead of a dead end.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Ari Galper is the creator of Unlock The Game™, a new sales mindset that overturns the notion of selling as we know it today. With a Masters Degree in Instructional Design and over a decade of experience creating breakthrough sales strategies for global companies such as UPS and QUALCOMM, Ari discovered the missing link that people who sell have been seeking for years. Listen to a free cold calling audio seminar, visit http://www.UnlockTheGame.com View Profile | Visit Website


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“Do’s and Don’ts for Prospecting and Cold Calls” by Art Sobczak View Profile | Visit Website If you’re an outside salesperson, your income probably relies on getting in front of new prospects. Yet, many reps would rather have their fingernails removed slowly than make cold calls. And it’s no wonder; with the abundant number of resistance-inducing techniques out there, salespeople set themselves up for failure. Here are some common sense "do’s and don’ts" to help you set more quality appointments on cold calls: 1. Do get information first The more you know about your prospect before placing a cold call and speaking with him, the better your chances of an appointment. It will help you prepare a more customized opening and better questions, plus it impresses the prospect. Conversely, if you have to ask, "Uh, what do you guys do there?" you’re labeled as a time-wasting, self-interested peddler. Work with the screener or anyone who answers the phone: "I hope you can help me. First, I’m looking for the name of the person there who handles the exterior maintenance and landscaping for your building. (After getting the name, continue.) Thank you. So I’m better prepared when I speak with him, there’s probably some information you can help me with, first." You could get almost all of your qualifying questions answered by people other than your decision-maker on your cold calls. 2. Don’t send information before the cold call Busy decision-makers toss unsolicited, bulging packages of literature with form letters (regardless of how many times your word processor mail merged their names into the body). Starting out a cold call with, "I sent you a letter, didja get it?" rarely elicits a response like, "Oh, yeah. You’re that guy. I want to meet with you!" 3. Don’t believe cold calling is just a "numbers" game The lottery is a numbers game. Cold calling for appointments is a quality game. Approach each with an attitude of accomplishment and desire. Don't burn through the list of prospects as fast as you can with


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the expectancy that your number will be drawn eventually. 4. Don’t ask for a decision in the opening of a cold call. Never open the call by including the goofy phrase, ". . . and I would like to drop by Tuesday at 2:00, or would 4:00 be better?" People are resistant when faced with decisions before they see any value. Also avoid the equally inane question, "If I could show you a way to ___, you would, wouldn’t you?" No one likes to be "techniqued." The only way they’ll consider investing time with you is if they see some value in doing so. 5. Do have an interest-creating opening on your cold call. Here’s one you might be able to adapt: "Ms. Bigg, I’m ____ with ____. My company specializes in (fill in with the ultimate result customers want and get from you, i.e., ‘helping garden centers generate more business during the off-season’). Depending on what you’re doing now, and your objectives, this might be something worth taking a look at. I’d like to ask a few questions to see if you’d like more information." 6. Do ask questions on the cold call. Some pundits suggest going for the appointment on a cold call quickly and never divulging information. Bunk. Those are likely people who are insecure with their (in)abilities to communicate by phone. If someone doesn’t have potential, I want to find that out now from my office rather than schlepping across town (or country) to learn the same thing. And if the prospect is qualified and has interest, I can pique his curiosity a bit by phone and pre-sell him on what we’ll speak about when I arrive. For example: "Pat, based on what you told me, it looks like you could show quite a significant labor savings with a system like ours. The best thing to do would be for us to get together so I can ask a few more questions about your operation and show you some of our options to see if we have a fit. How about next week?" Then narrow down a convenient time for both of you. 7. Do make a confirmation call after the cold call. Some might suggest this gives them a chance to cancel. That’s right. And if they’re of this mindset, they either wouldn’t be there when you did arrive, or they wouldn’t give you the time of day. A phone call gives you a chance to address either situation and save time. 8. Do keep cold calling Featured Articles – SalesPractice.com

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And don’t let a "no" get you down. The last call has nothing to do with the next unless you let negative feelings strangle your attitude. Talking to people generates income, but avoiding the phone, stuffing envelopes and walking around do not. Set a secondary objective, one you can accomplish on every call, such as simply qualifying someone as a prospect or not, so you can have a success of sorts on every call.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Art Sobczak helps sales pros use the phone to prospect, service and sell more effectively, while eliminating moralekilling "rejection." He presents public seminars and customizes programs for companies. Art has a number of books, CD's to help sales reps. See free articles and back issues of his weekly emailed sales tips at www.BusinessByPhone.com. Also ask for a free copy of his monthly Telephone Prospecting and Selling Report newsletter by emailing [email protected], or calling (402)895-9399. View Profile | Visit Website


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“Voice Mail Can Be Your Buddy” by BIG Mike McDaniel View Profile | Visit Website Voice Mail is a classy name for "answer Machine". Problem is, people at home had answer machines long before most businesses. When the answer machine industry finally figured how work to their machines into business systems with more than one extension, they called it "Voice Mail" This article focuses on what you say TO the voice mail, not the welcome greeting you might put on your voice mail. You can leave two types of voice mail messages. A message to a person you already have a business relationship with, and a message to a person you hope to establish a business relationship with (a cold call). Most people don't answer machines or voice mail. If you have an answer machine at home you have listened to that recorded silence while the non-speaking person breathes, then hangs up, having decided not to leave a message. Most answer machine message begin with a pause because the person on the other end was not prepared to leave a message and does not think on their feet like you and me. In business, the pause can kill you. Voice mail can be your buddy. Be prepared to meet it head on without a moment's hesitation. Just like you worked out your one sentence unique selling proposition and practiced the quick draw of your business cards for networking, you can be ready with several canned voice mail message and not miss a second when the thing beeps at you. Time is money. You took the time to make the call, so you should make every effort to make it pay for off for you. What you say is what makes the difference. There is some research that says the average executive gets over 300 messages (mail, eMail fax and more) each day, not to mention the bombardment of advertising messages from billboards, TV, radio, cable and newspapers. That's a lot of clutter to penetrate. And if your message is ho hum, or starts with a pause... fahgettaboutit! Your message must attract attention right off or you go down with the delete button. Leaving messages for friends and family is a snap, a


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spontaneous act. Not so at work. You need to prepare your message.Be ready before you dial. What do you say? You have to plan this in advance. Scripting is not a bad idea. I am not saying you should read from a script, but if you write and organize what you are going to say and read the script out loud enough times, it will sound like a natural when you recite it to the machine. Just like you rehearsed your Unique Selling Proposition (USP) so you don't have to remember, it just comes out naturally when someone asks "What do you do?" I know of one eager saleslady who recorded her voice mail response on a little cassette machine hooked to her phone with a Radio Shack interface. When she gets the tone, she pushes the play button and sends it down the line. Another sales type, (let's call him "Bif") had a guy at the radio station do up a fancy 30 second commercial complete with production effects and music. There is a line you cross and Bif may have crossed it. Goals Your message should be targeted at building credibility, so when you call again and the party is in the office, you can get through. How can you build credibility with a voice mail message? For starts, you don't leave a lot of ahhs, gulps, and uuhs. When you begin without hesitation, in a clear, concise, upbeat manner you are telegraphing a positive image of knowledge and confidence, even when you get the "unexpected" voice mail prompt. As you deliver your rehearsed script over and over, take care not to speed though with little or no emotion in your voice. Remember how you feel when the place you call is answered by a bored, unhappy receptionist who speeds through the spiel with the "I don't care if you can't comprehend what I am saying" attitude. Your Voice mail pitch must be warm, and slow enough to sound as if it is coming from your heart, not your recorder on high speed. Here are BIG Mike's Tips for leaving effective Voice Mail DON'T BE PREDICTABLE Everyone leaves the same tired message. You get tuned out the minutes it starts, Example of same ol same ol: "Hi this is Bif, we haven't met but I thought I'd call to see if you would be interested in hearing about my new..." UGH! Make your messages so compelling


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folks have to call you back. And don't drone on and on, make 'em short enough to entice, but long enough to incite. IT'S NOT ABOUT YOU This phrase pops up in every aspect of marketing, from advertising all the way down to answer machine and voice mail messages, Its Not About You. Take a poll. No one cares about you. No one cares that your mug shot is 15 feet high on a billboard across town. No one cares if you are doing your own radio commercials and sound worse than the high school announcer. No one cares if your dealership has sold more cars than all the dealers in Central Montana. And NO ONE CARES when you leave a message about you, or your company. Its not about you. WIIFM. WIIFM is not a radio station, is the acronym to remind you they don't care about you, instead they ask "What's In It For Me?" WIIFM?? SELL THE BENEFITS The key ingredient for successful sales and marketing works for effective voice mail as well. What can you say that will lead the listener to know and believe that you have something of value for them? Prospects return calls if you convince them you may have something they want...and, soon. ASK FOR THE ORDER Voice mails have been asking callers to "Leave a message" for years, yet fully three quarters of those who do respond to the beep only leave name and phone number. Your voice mail message gives you a perfect opportunity to call for action on the part of your listener (Remember you are competing with 300+ messages and the horrid reputation of telephone sales pitches (telemarketers). Go for the close with a call for action. Ask them to do something. To Call You, To be on the lookout for a package from FedEx. To check records to see if you are not right on target. Ask and you'll get. Voice mail response can be an effective sales tool. Voice mail is one of many tools the professional uses to get the job done, right.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: BIG Mike McDaniel is a former successful radio station owner and major market TV News anchor and nationally Featured Articles – SalesPractice.com

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recognized Speaker, Author, and Small Business Consultant. Big Mike has authored seven books and hundreds of articles and publishes a sales magazine. He has served as a Director of the International Idea Bank (a marketing think tank). He is the founder of the BIG Ideas Group, a marketing and management facilitator for small business growth through seminars, MasterMind Idea Exchanges, focus groups, distance learning, sales training and operational strategies. http://BigIdeasGroup.com View Profile | Visit Website


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“Create Trust, Gain a Client” by Charles H. Green View Profile | Visit Website Nothing improves business development more than gaining the trust of the potential client. Yet few consultants do what it takes to be trusted. We sell in ways that destroy rather than create trust because we misunderstand the buying decision. Clients talk as if they focus only on features and price, but that’s not how they really decide. In contrast to the one-dimensional, linear models of the sales process that we all learn, their decisions are the result of a two-step process. The first step is screening, which is done fairly rationally. But the second step, selection, is much more emotional. Clients are not just rational decision makers calculating discounted present values and minimizing downside risk. They are also human beings, and human beings buy with their heart and then justify it with their head. Our Errors We undermine our efforts to build trust by making four basic errors: We are overly rational. We forget that buying is an emotional as well as cognitive process. People need not only to be convinced but also to feel comfortable with their decisions. Above all, they need a consultant who listens to them. Being right is vastly overrated. Earning the right to be right is where the action is and where most consultants fall down. An ounce of listening—paying attention, paraphrasing, conveying empathy, going where the client goes—is worth a pound of correct answers, references, and credentials. To convince clients rationally, we must also approach them emotionally. It’s too much about us. Clients usually ask us to tell them about ourselves. They don’t really mean it. They just don’t know what else to ask and don’t want to look ineffectual. Imagine going out on a blind date with someone. Would you want to hear the person talk about the last 17 people he or she went out with?


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Of course not. Yet somehow we expect clients to be enthralled with all our past relationships. But their favorite subject is everyone’s favorite subject—themselves. Talking about ourselves doesn’t make us trustworthy. Talking about them, and particularly hearing about them, does. Clients pay attention to us only if we first pay attention to them. We are control oriented. Most sales training programs say to set goals for each meeting. Most consultants are delighted to take that advice. We say, “Just wait a bit, I’ll get to that in the next section.” We look at our watches when the client is talking about something other than our objective. If the client wanders to other topics, we gently but firmly bring the discussion back to our objectives. If we’re running out of time, we abandon lively client-driven conversations in order to get to our objectives. And if we walk out without our objectives achieved, we feel we have failed. There are only two good objectives for every sales interaction. The first is to move the relationship forward, and the second is to help the client. If you have achieved the second objective, you’ve almost always achieved the first. You gain the most control by giving it up. We focus too much on the transaction. Most approaches to business development come from sales models for nonconsulting industries and are rooted in competition-based views of selling, in which the whole emphasis is on “getting the deal.” This is wrong for the consulting industry. Instead, the emphasis should be on “doing the next right thing for the client.” Getting the engagement becomes just another point in a developing relationship. The best transactions happen when we do not focus on transactions but on relationships. Our Emotional Resistance While buyers are partly emotional, consultants are even more so. Even our resistance to the idea of selling on trust is itself largely emotional. There are several reasons for the emotional resistance that lies at the root of the sales process errors noted before. We overrate content mastery. Most consultants work in subject areas that require in-depth technical competence. We’ve been hired, trained, compensated, and promoted almost entirely on the basis of technical mastery since the second grade. And so we reject selling Featured Articles – SalesPractice.com

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based on “simple” or “soft” approaches because it sounds too “easy” or it “doesn’t seem to make sense.” But that rejection has nothing to do with ease and everything to do with unease. We’re just not comfortable with processes that don’t depend on cognitive mastery. Our comfort zone is intellectual complexity. We distrust and are ill at ease with the messy emotional aspects of personal sales. We want to “think” our way into effective selling. We focus too much on competition. The reigning paradigm in business is competition, not collaboration; me, not we; competitive advantage, not shared destinies. The competitive paradigm is ingrained. Think of the two most common metaphors for business: athletics and war. In neither is there a client. The very language of business reflects a preoccupation with competition. It’s difficult for anyone to leave such unconscious biases behind. Many consultants haven’t sorted this out and are at odds with themselves. A part of them believes that selling is unethical; hence the desires for euphemisms like “business development” (phrased in the passive voice, as if to distance ourselves from any tainted intent). Those of us who feel this way become suspicious of trust, fearing that, if we use it, we might become manipulators. This view doesn’t give our clients much credit for thinking independently. We’re unable to think paradoxically. Most consultants are linear thinkers. The ideas of dialectical logic (“we are never so alone as when in the middle of a crowd”) or paradox (“you gain the most influence by not seeking influence; to be heard, first listen”) is very difficult to accept. Paradoxes violate our comfort zone model of thinking, and thinking is something in which consultants are—paradoxically—very emotionally involved. We cannot give up control. Most consultants desire control and dislike being controlled. But a need for control conflicts with transparency, collaboration, and client focus—three fundamentals of trust-based selling. As long as a consultant believes the purpose of business development is to get sales (engagements), trustworthiness is at risk. The key is to reframe “sales” to mean the professional obligation of a consultant to help clients envision an alternate, preferable reality and then to help them get there. If we can see how things can be better for our clients, it would be unprofessional not to point it out to the client. That, by


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another name, is selling, which can be done in a way that creates trust during the business development process itself. The Principles of Trust-based Selling The only way to be trusted in consulting is to be trustworthy. Intent matters; there are no shortcuts. You can use the business development process to build trust by adopting the following four principles: 1. Client orientation for the sake of the client, not the consultant. “Client focus” for the seller’s sake is the bogus focus of a vulture. True client orientation means we seek to address the client’s best interests, in the sales process as in all else. If that means another firm is best for the client, we say so, knowing that in the long run we get credit from present and future clients for being client focused for the client’s sake. 2. A medium- to long-term perspective. Focus on the relationship, not the transaction. Perhaps we should say, “The relationship is the client.” Acting with a medium- to long-term perspective in mind also solves the usual sellers’ concern about the economics of trust: It means the economics of a particular project or transaction should be discussed in terms of fairness in the long run, rather than in competitive terms. A couple in a marriage quickly compromises on who takes out the garbage rather than belabor it to get the best deal. There is much more at stake in a serious relationship than getting the best deal in each transaction. 3. A habit of collaboration. Business developers demonstrate trustworthiness by constantly involving the client-to-be. Don’t speculate about what clients are thinking—ask them. View the proposal-writing process as something that can be done collaboratively rather than as a competitive exercise in putting the best face forward. Value meetings over phone calls, and phone calls over letters and e-mails. Practice putting all issues on the table for joint discussion rather than negotiating from competitive positions. 4. A willingness to be transparent. Nothing destroys client trust faster than the consultant who appears to be withholding information or trying to control the client. When you don’t know something, say so. When you haven’t got the perfect staff, say so. Be willing to be open about your pricing policies, leverage Featured Articles – SalesPractice.com

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structures, and even staffing procedures. What you lose in control over perceptions is more than compensated for by the goodwill you get for being transparent. Trust-based selling is not a sales process model but a powerful way of creating shared value for client and consultant alike. It is the application of these four principles to whatever process model you happen to use, as well as to the key aspects of business development: pricing, qualification, branding, staffing, dispute resolution, project management, and cross-selling Addendum: How to Create Trust During Business Development Write your next proposal sitting next to the client. Instead of using FedEx or pdf files to submit your proposal, write it while sitting next to the client. Bring all your required information, and ask the client to do the same. Leave the room only when a joint proposal is finished, one understood by all and representing the best effort possible by one particular client and one particular consulting firm. Then detach yourself from the results, knowing you’ve done your level best to help the client. Listen by paying attention. A lot of what passes for listening in the consulting world is just waiting for the client to finish talking so we can start looking smart again. And, while we wait, we are thinking about what we are going to say to achieve that goal. We camouflage it through a variety of behavioral techniques—mirroring, head nods, and other nonverbal actions—but the fact is, our thoughts are elsewhere. The myth of multitasking is just that. Sadly, our clients know the truth when we nod knowingly (and absently) as they talk. The most powerful way to listen is, very simply, to pay attention and to drop all else from the conscious mind. This does not just mean put the Blackberry away. It means stop thinking about what you’re going to do with what you’re hearing and just be there, fully, to hear what your client is saying. Period. Make listening a gift of your attention, not a skill you practice to use on others. Think out loud. The biggest reason we don’t listen by paying attention is that it’s scary. If we don’t think ahead, we might look silly, or worse yet, stupid. Featured Articles – SalesPractice.com

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We might not be able to come up with a good idea on the spot. We might blurt out something we’d regret. We need the time to rehearse mentally. We need to put together a good response that moves the ball forward. Or so we think. It is indeed risky, and risk taking requires courage, the courage to say, “Well, let me just try and process what you’ve told me here, uh, thinking out loud, now. Now, if what you say—I mean—no, wait, if the process time is really linked to the temperature range, like you said— didn’t you?—then, um, the temperature range also has a direct impact on customer satisfaction. I mean, isn’t that one of the implications of what you’re saying? And—well, say, how does that play in the rest of the organization? I don’t think I’ve heard others say that, is that right?” Thinking out loud makes it clear that you’re not putting one over on them. It is the essence of collaboration; you are inviting the client to think with you, sharing even your thought process. And it is truly client focused. Not the focus of a vulture but focus for the client’s sake. Thinking out loud also increases your credibility and invites, by example, an increase in intimacy. The willingness to share the most precious thing we have, our conscious attention, demonstrates caring in the most fundamental way. Sell by doing, not by telling. Practice sample selling. Don’t tell clients how good you are; show them —using their issues. Don’t blitz them with credentials; demonstrate to them what your credential can do for them. People are far more impressed with actions than words, particularly actions on their behalf, Say what you don’t know, as well as what you do know. Many consultants try to sell by telling people how good they are. But most clients want to know about limits. They know you’re not perfect, no one is; they just want to know with whom they are dealing. Help them out, be straight with them. They will appreciate it. Get in the habit of talking about yourself for only 90–120 seconds. When your time is up, say, “But enough about me, let’s talk about you.” If the client wants more, give them more—another 90–120 seconds, then say, “But enough about me . . . .” Be insatiably curious.


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If you’re constantly curious, you’ll ask questions. You’ll learn. You’ll come up with great ideas. You’ll notice things. But most important, you’ll be focusing on the client, not yourself. Nothing creates genuine trust better than focusing on the client, not as a means to your ends but as an end in itself.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Charles H. Green is a speaker and executive educator on trust-based relationships and Trust-based Selling in complex businesses. He is author of Trust-based Selling (McGraw-Hill, 2005), and co-author of The Trusted Advisor (with David Maister and Rob Galford, Free Press, October 2000). View Profile | Visit Website


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“Overcoming Sales Call Reluctance Must Be Done to Build Business” by Connie Cadansky View Profile | Visit Website Nothing is more foundational to sales success than prospecting. Yet most people hate to prospect! It does not have to be that way. The majority of entrepreneurs and salespeople suffer from call reluctance®, the hesitation to initiate contact with potential buyers in sufficient numbers. Call reluctance is not fear of rejection or fear of failure. It is due to an emotional interference which renders our knowledge, skill, ability and talent useless. It is not just cold calling and telephone prospecting. It is much more. Research shows that in our culture, the highest rewards do not go to the hardest working, the most intelligent or the best prepared. The highest rewards go to the people who are most willing to self-promote. For a very few, self-promotion comes naturally. When the fear to selfpromote limits prospecting behavior in entrepreneurs/salespeople, it becomes Sales Call Reluctance®. The most financially successful salespeople/entrepreneurs are those who sell the most. That's pretty obvious, right? But why do they sell more? Because they make enough contacts day in and day out so that they always have people to see, to talk to and to sell to. Tips for Overcoming Sales Call Reluctance: 1. Be honest with yourself. Many people are more willing to admit they are alcoholic, than that they are sales call reluctant. Are you getting in front of qualified prospects consistently and comfortably? If not, why not? Many people want to hide and deny their call reluctance. Admitting they are call reluctant is the first step to overcoming the debilitating disease of prospecting. 2. Observe your behavior on the sales call. Call reluctance shows up there, too. What happens when it is time to ask for the business? Do you shy away? Do you hope that if you are nice enough, they will ask to buy? 3. (If you are making all the money you want and meeting your objectives, do not do this exercise!) Write down your self-defeating behaviors. Do you commit to making 50 calls a day and stop at 20? Do Featured Articles – SalesPractice.com

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you get caught up in busy work so you can avoid prospecting? Do you lose business cards? Do you write a prospect's name on a sticky note and then misplace it? Do you have selective forgetting when it comes to asking for referrals? Do you target avoid certain people? CEO's? Lawyers? Doctors? 4. Be able to clearly, concisely and confidently articulate your potential value to your prospect. If you can do this, you are not wasting your prospect's time. 5. Take an inventory of what you have to offer. Once you are convinced of your value, the process of prospecting becomes much easier because you are “sold” on you. 6. Use a sales preference assessment. A validated instrument can quantify specific challenges and suggest appropriate steps to address sales call reluctance issues. 7. A powerful technique to overcome call reluctance is to capture what the self-critical inner voice is saying to you ON PAPER in YOUR HANDWRITING. Recognize this voice? It is an internal saboteur that must be defused. This hyperactive voice says things like, “I don't want to intrude” or “I haven't done enough research about their company.” “They are probably still at lunch.” Once captured on paper, write realistic responses to the critic's claims. Engage the internal voice in written dialogue. For instance, “I may not be totally knowledgeable about their company, but I have the basics down.” Recognize the goal obstructing statements and counter those with goal supporting statements. Once an individual is willing to do these exercises, they are on the fast track to becoming incredibly comfortable prospecting. Remember: Opportunities are never lost. The ones you miss go to someone else.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Connie Kadansky is a consultant, speaker and trainer specializing in Overcoming Sales Call Reluctance. She offers effective tools and training to diagnose call reluctance and assists salespeople in highly profitable prospecting. For additional information, contact Connie at 602-997-1101 or visit her website at www.exceptionalsales.com View Profile | Visit Website


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“The Silver Bullet in Sales – Yes Virginia There is a Silver Bullet” by Craig Elias View Profile | Visit Website We have been conditioned to believe that in sales there is no such thing as a silver bullet. I can tell you that there is. It is called timing — getting in front of the right buyer at EXACTLY the right time. Research shows that you are five times more likely to make a sale when you have the right timing. Timing and Buying Modes To have the right timing you need to understand that, no matter what you sell or to whom, buyers are always in one of three buying modes: Status Quo: Status quo is when a buyer believes the product or service they are currently using meets, or exceeds, their current needs. Window of Dissatisfaction™: A Window of Dissatisfaction occurs after a buyer realizes that their current solution no longer meets their needs but before they start the process of searching for alternative solutions. Searching for Alternatives: Searching for alternatives is when a buyer realizes their current solution no longer meets their needs and is actively searching for alternative solutions. Buying Modes and Trigger Events Buyers shift from the buying mode of status quo into the Window of Dissatisfaction, and from the Window of Dissatisfaction into searching for alternatives because they experience a Trigger Event, or a series of Trigger Events. You will sell more, sell sooner, and sell at a higher price when you can identify the Trigger Events that shift buyers into the Window of Dissatisfaction and get to these highly motivated buyers before your competition. Trigger Events and Prices It’s important to understand the impact that Trigger Events have on prices. As a rule, buyers pay for perceived value – the perceived difference between your solution and their current solution – and a


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buyer’s perception of value changes as Trigger Events shift buyers from one buying mode to another. When a buyer is in the Status Quo buying mode, their perceived value of their current solution is high. This results in the perceived difference in value between your solution and their current solution not being enough to motivate them to buy from you. When you try selling to buyers in the buying mode of Status Quo, you are likely to spend a lot of time selling with little or no chance of actually making a sale. When buyers experience a Trigger Event they move into the Window of Dissatisfaction and their perceived value of their current solution is significantly reduced. Now the buyer’s perceived difference in value between your solution and their current solution increases to the point where you are much more likely to make a sale. By being first with buyers who recently entered the Window of Dissatisfaction, not only are you more likely to make a sale, you are also likely to have a shorter sales cycle, and when you win the business it’s likely to be at a much higher price. When buyers are not intercepted by a savvy sales person, another Trigger Event or a series of Trigger Events will cause them to become so dissatisfied with their current solution that they pass through the Window of Dissatisfaction and start searching for alternatives. Now the perceived value of your solution is reduced to the difference between your solution and the next best solution proposed by a competitor. When you try selling to buyers who are searching for alternatives you are less likely to make the sale and IF you win the business, you are likely to have a much longer sales cycle and a much lower price. The REAL Value of Leveraging Trigger Events The REAL value of leveraging Trigger Events is you spend more time selling to buyers who are in the Window of Dissatisfaction. When you sell to buyers who are in the Window of Dissatisfaction you are most likely to get loyal, appreciative customers who will represent 80% of your profits and gladly provide you with a reference, or that most treasured thing in sales, referrals. If you miss the Window of Dissatisfaction and try selling to buyers who are already searching for alternatives, you are more likely to get those peripheral, disloyal, price sensitive, customers who will be 80% of your headaches, represent only 20% of your profits, and are unlikely to be a reference or give you referrals. Three Types of Trigger Events Featured Articles – SalesPractice.com

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Trigger Events that shift buyers from Status Quo into the Window of Dissatisfaction fall into one of three different categories: Bad Experience: The buyer has a bad experience with a product/service, people, or a provider: E.g. A product/service change creates dissatisfaction and the buyer gets ready to move on. Change / Transition: The buyer has a change or transition in people, places, or priorities. E.g. A change in the buyer who purchases your product or the person who sells your product to the buyer. Awareness: Buyers become aware of the need to change for one of three reasons: Legal, risk avoidance, economics. E.g. Buying from you is less risky than continuing to buy from their current supplier. Identifying the Best Trigger Events for What You Sell Every day, decision makers experience Trigger Events that shift them into the Window of Dissatisfaction and turn them into highly motivated buyers. In order to get to these highly motivated buyers before your competition you need to identify the specific Trigger Events for the products/services that you sell. One way to identify the Trigger Events for what you sell is to do a Won Sales Analysis. Here is something I find very interesting, when you search Google for the term sales analysis - by using quotes around the words “sales analysis” - you’ll find somewhere around one million pages on how to conduct a “sales analysis”. When you want to understand how you lost a sale and you search Google for the term “lost sales analysis”, you will find around 1,000 web pages. When you want to understand how you won a sale and you search Google for the term “won sales analysis” you will find, on my last check, less than 100 pages. Of all the pages on the Internet that talk about sales analysis, less than 0.1% talk about how to analyze the sales you lose and less than .01% talk about how to win more business by analyzing the sales that you have already won. When you want to conduct a Won Sales Analysis to identify the Trigger Events that lead up to you winning new customers, and who are most likely to become your future customers, you’ll find the current version of my Won Sales Analysis template at www.wonsalesanalysis.com. Conclusion There is a silver bullet in sales, its called timing — being first with buyers who recently entered the Window of Dissatisfaction. You can create timing by identifying, finding, and capitalizing on the Trigger Events that shift buyers into the Window of Dissatisfaction and putting Featured Articles – SalesPractice.com

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in place ways to repeatedly get to these recently motivated buyers before your competition. By being first with these highly motivated buyers you will sell more, sell sooner, and sell at a higher price.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: The creator of Trigger Event Selling™, and contributing author to the #1 Selling Book on both Amazon and The Wall Street Journal “Masters of Sales”, Craig Elias has received coverage on NBC news, in The New York Times, The National Post, The Wall Street Journal, The Nikkei Marketing Journal, Sales and Marketing magazine, and had his last company chosen by Dow Jones as one of the 50 most promising companies in North America. For almost 20 years, Craig has used Trigger Event strategies to be a top sales performer at EVERY company he has worked for – including WorldCom where he was named the #1 salesperson within six months of joining the company – and to win a global, billion dollar idea competition where he collected a $1,000,000 prize. Contact Craig by phone (toll free: 866.744.7904 | direct +1.403.874.2998), Skype (Craig.Elias), or web (www.ShiftSelling.com/contact) when you want a no-charge introduction to Trigger Event Selling™ and how it can help you identify, find out about, and capitalize on Trigger Events. View Profile | Visit Website


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“To Powerpoint or Not to Powerpoint?” by Craig James View Profile | Visit Website I recently found myself in a battle with an associate over creating a presentation for a seminar we were planning to conduct in June. The subject of our seminar was about how best to use the web to generate better on-line leads and sales. The methodology is quite involved, involving concepts such as "sweet spots", "sales paths" and "crawling spiders" (I kid you not on that last one!). The goal of the seminar was to get at least 10% of the expected audience of 25-40 to invite us in for further discussions, and to make a sales presentation. My associate comes from the school which teaches that a seminar presenter must use a PowerPoint presentation in order to be effective, and that the presentation should include as much explanatory information as can be stuffed into it so that, supposedly, the audience will understand what he's talking about (as an aside, my associate comes from a marketing background). I, on the other hand, come from the school that advocates designing the presentation around the customer's needs, challenges, goals, and vision as the place to start, and that there are many ways to accomplish that - with or without presentation software. PowerPoint - like most things in this world - is not in and of itself good or bad. It's a tool - one that can help you achieve your purpose for the presentation. Like most tools, if used correctly it can aid you. If misused, it will likely hurt you. Many talented sales people - who, if the followed their instincts, would be great presenters - let presentation software become a burdensome crutch; they spend hours agonizing over how many slides, how many bullets, how many sub-bullets, and what kind of pic art to use. They then bore audiences to death with slide after slide of mind-numbing detail - detail that is frequently not necessary, and of no interest to the people calling the shots. Sound familiar? When it comes to preparing presentations, give yourself a break. Don't box yourself in with this or that presentation tool. Think about what you want to accomplish, and the best way to accomplish it. Here are some questions to consider when preparing your next presentation: Who is my audience, and what do they want that my offering can help them get?


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What's the best way to present this product/service to this audience? Presentation software? Flip charts? A dry erase board? Maybe a product demo? Or should I simply have a dialogue with my audience (a good option to consider if you want maximum interaction with your audience)? How can I best engage my audience, and get them thinking - about their current situation, and about how much better it could be with my offering? If you do decide to use presentation software (and please don't get the impression I'm trying to dissuade you - I'm not), consider these suggestions for making it work for you, not against you. Use it to support and supplement your presentation, not be the centerpiece of it. Use visuals (images, graphs, charts) to convey ideas and key concepts; keep words to a minimum. Words have to be read. Reading is work. And audiences don't like to work. They prefer to use their senses seeing, hearing, even touching (a physical product), tasting (food products), and smelling (fragrances). So let them. Avoid slide after slide of bullets. It is true that one picture is worth a thousand words. But a thousand words are most definitely not worth one picture! When using words, use keywords. Sentences and paragraphs have no place in a presentation. However you choose to present, never lose sight of what your goal is. For our seminar, it's to get invited to a private sales meeting. So I won't be revealing everything about what we do, and how we do it. Because if the audience can get every ounce, every morsel, every nugget of information from us at the seminar, what reason would they have to invite us for a follow-up meeting? None. They'll go back to their office, review the handouts, then find two or three other companies that do what we do, and lo and behold, we'll get called one day to "provide a quote". That's not the position we want to be in. Action Item Review your own sales presentation, asking yourself the above questions. Consider modifying it - or revamping it altogether - to align with your goals for each audience, and for each product. For example, instead of offering up every detail of your offering in the beginning of your presentation, give your audience just enough to intrigue them. They'll then start asking questions to learn more. This turns your presentation from a one-way lecture into an interactive presentation. These questions will give you critical insights into what benefits of your offering are most important to them. You can then refocus your presentation to align with what your audience cares most about, while Featured Articles – SalesPractice.com

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drawing on the details they need with other slides you keep in your back pocket. Good Selling! Oh, and about the battle with my associate? Well, the presentation part of the seminar lasted 30 minutes, not an hour, and was a smashing success (we got 4 sales meetings). Guess who yielded to whom?

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Craig James has taught at New York University’s School of Continuing and Professional Studies, and has lectured at Columbia University’s School of Continuing Education. He has also volunteered as a Discussion Leader with the Workshop In Business Opportunities, a "boot camp" for entrepreneurs whose mission is to enable small business owners and budding entrepreneurs in under-served communities to obtain financial success in starting, operating, and building successful businesses. An accomplished speaker and presenter, Craig has been active in Toastmasters International since 2001, and served a term as President of his local chapter. He's written for and been quoted in publications such as Business Week, Sales and Marketing Management, and Selling Power, and been interviewed by Sales Rep Radio View Profile | Visit Website


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“Teaching Consequences to Your Prospects” by Dan Seidman View Profile | Visit Website An innovative, highly effective selling strategy. A superb selling secret for the new millennium. Buyers today are better at buying than sellers are at selling Like a miserable plague, the educated, experienced buyer continues to confront and confound us all. What happened? How did buyers get better and how should we adjust to this epidemic of enlightenment that takes money out of our pockets? That adjustment is contained in the unique strategy Teaching Consequences to Your Prospects. But first, let's define the need for a new approach by defining three ways that those buyers are kicking our sales tails. 1. Buyers know all of our closes. Sales training evolved from techniques that were developed in the 70s and 80s. Many potential customers have experienced the use of our closing techniques for decades. We learned to work buyers with the alternate choice, reduce to the ridiculous, the Ben Franklin and many more closes. My favorite old close was one I experienced recently after test-driving a new car. While I was being worked by the auto rep, he warned me that the car color and model I'd driven was so popular that if I did not put a deposit down today, it would be gone tomorrow. I said, "Hey! That's the impending event close. If I don't buy from you now, circumstances will change and I won't be able to buy from you. That's a very manipulative thing to say now, isn't it?" At that point he asked what I did for a living and accurately guessed that I wasn't going to buy a car from him today. Since buyers have experienced these sales ploys for over 20 years, is it any surprise that they know them and might even be irritated by their use in conversation? Once a buyer identifies our tactic, it becomes a trick. And nobody wants to be tricked. Another reason many buyers know our closes is that they might have been a salesperson in a previous existence. 2. Buyers gather information before they talk to us. My whacked-out World Wide Web theory is this - the Internet is merely an outgrowth of Consumer Reports Magazine. Think about it. Pre-buying prospects go online to look at alternative choices, gather users' opinions (good and bad) and compare pricing. The popularity of Consumer Reports Magazine was rooted in the fact that it educated and prepared buyers. The web and our need to send literature first (before qualifying, see


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point #3 below) are educating and preparing our buyers. If you're not sure whether this is really true, think about how many times this past month you bounced around the web or phoned for literature before you went forward with a decision, large or small. I recently spoke to a national exporting association and noticed a man who lingered until all the attendees had left the room. He introduced himself as a buyer and said he regularly attended meetings like this to find out what to expect from salespeople down the road. He also pointed out that many industries call on prospects who are truly professional buyers. The title on their business cards reads "Buyer." It is all they do, all day long. And their companies are paying great loads of money to train them how to beat up salespeople and get the best prices. Who's training them and giving away all of our secrets? It made me think of the convicts who get out of prison and help police and consumers to fight crime by giving away their criminal insiders' strategies. We now need to be prepared to deal with buyers who are armed and dangerous. 3. Tragically, buyers have been trained by our bad selling practices. We've done things like push them to hurry up and buy. They respond by pushing us away and stalling. We whip out our laundry list of benefits, them employ something like the Ben Franklin close (a list of reasons to buy vs. reasons not to buy), but we don't discover what motivates them to buy. They receive this message that we don't care or understand them and they mentally mark us off their list of solutions. Another poor practice occurs when we dump loads of information on people without or before qualifying them. I remember working for an executive search firm in the '80s where, as a rookie, I mailed out almost $1000 a month in classy, expensive literature to everyone who said something like "sounds interesting, mail me your information." Is every "interested" prospect a potential buyer? Of course not. If I were still that naive, I certainly would not be involved in the world of sales education today. Here's the problem with our bad selling practices - we've set a weak standard for the selling environment and created a monster. And we need to keep feeding him because he really feeds our family! The truth is that buyer simply needs to meet you to decide if you're the safest bet for his company and the safest bet for his career. And this selling strategy focuses on that premise. Teaching Consequences to Your Prospects Here's a revelation for you: You already know all about consequences, you just need to figure out how and when to apply it to your sales arsenal.


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Remember when you were a little guy or girl and adults had to teach you things like don't touch a hot stove, and look both ways before crossing the street? The adults would conclude their warning with a consequence: "you'll burn your hand" or, "you'll get hit by a car." This was meant to etch into your brain the seriousness of your mistake. This is the number-one rule in raising children - teach them that an outcome or aftereffect occurs as a result of their actions. These repercussions can be good or bad, but let's focus on the bad fallout of their actions. If you touch the hot stove, you burn your hand. Let's move forward a few years. If you steal a banana, later steal a book, then later steal a Buick, you'll awaken one morning surrounded by steel bars and a new set of friends. Consequences reveal that the initial problem, snatching that banana, is not the real problem. The real problem is the many repercussions of that little banana grab, the eventual conclusion is a life behind bars. While that example seems dramatic, you do want to use similar language that nurtures your buyer while warning them of danger. You're going to play the adult to your child/prospect. You can learn to engage in discussions that will prevent your prospects from burning their butts on the job or getting run over by the competition. In our sales lives, we want to talk about how the repercussions of not buying from us could damage the prospect's business in some way. Consequences might include a slow¬down in sales, diminished production, angry shareholders, serious damage to the future of the business, etc. Your job is to point the prospect to the real aftermath of his or her unsolved trouble. Let's look at a quick example of a traditional sales call and one that uses the consequence strategy. Traditional As a recruiter, it was my job to pitch outstanding candidates to employers looking for salespeople. I attacked the marketplace like hundreds of other recruiters in Chicago. Our collective phone calls, thousands of them each week, all sounded like this: Dan: Hello (decision-maker), I understand that you're looking for a salesperson, and I would like to share a great one with you. She has hit 150 percent of her quota the past three years, is trained by Xerox, which you know is outstanding, and she has made President's Club— that's top 10 percent—for her firm the past two years. What an excellent addition she'd make to your team. (I was about to get hit with any of a dozen objections.)


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Decision-maker: We don't pay fees to headhunters, we require a college degree, she'd need ten years in selling, she hasn't sold in our industry, I already have plenty of candidates from my ad in the paper, it's late in the interviewing process. And if she's doing so well, why is she looking? And so on. It was the beginning of a verbal arm-wrestling match. Except it didn't matter if my larynx was stronger; the prospect could always just hang up the phone. Selling by pitching this way was exhausting, discouraging, and demeaning. There had to be a better way for my energy and my ego. Consequences I'll never forget the first time I used consequences (in fact, when I speak on this experience I get goose bumps recalling it). I created a list of questions that pointed to the impact of the missing sales rep problem. Here's how the conversation with that first sales manager evolved: Dan: Hi, John, I heard you had an open territory, how's it going? John: Well, I'm very busy interviewing people now. (Notice he's setting me up to get off the phone with the "very busy" comment.) Dan: Good, hope you find someone. So who's covering that open territory? John: I am. Dan: In addition to managing your other people and all your other work? John: Yes. Dan: Oh. no, that's probably not taking too much extra time from your day? John: No, it's not really affecting my days, I just work into the evening. (He laughed, he's forming rapport with me.) Dan: Since you've been doing the work of this missing person, is your family okay with the extra hours you're putting in? (After a long pause) John: You know what, I haven't been home for dinner in two weeks. And my wife is a great cook! (He said those exact words.)


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I continued, asking other consequence questions, like "Do your competitors know that these accounts aren't being visited?" "Is the missing person costing the company much money?" "Is this costing you money?" The situation was being framed by the trauma caused by the missing sales rep. Five minutes into the phone call, he asked me if I had anyone for him to see. Imagine that! I hadn't presented a product or service to him. I hadn't presented any benefits I could offer. There wasn't even a hint that I had a solution for his problem. But he knew one thing about me that was true: I knew his situation, his personal experience, almost as intimately as he did. So who was better qualified to help him—me, or the other pushy parrots calling to "present" candidates for the job? I later had a unique experience when that potential client (who became a buyer and a friend) told me what happened after we had that discussion on the consequences of his decision making. He said our conversation was so unusual that he told his wife about it at home that evening (after eating leftovers). He told her that while the choices between my service and a competitor's were fairly even, I had a much better understanding of the complete reality, the scope, of the decision. And that's why he chose to do business with me. Two great things about this strategy? First, every conversation is customized based on the prospect's perception of outcome (with a little help from you). No more boring pitches that lead to burnout, especially among phone salespeople. Next, the nature of consequences is that it prevents stalling - the number one problem with which sales reps struggle. Strategize with your sales and marketing teams about the consequences of your prospects' trouble. Build this new language into your presentation and literature. You'll begin to gather rich information that will help you gather more riches for you and your family.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Dan Seidman has been selected as one of the “Top 12 Sales Coaches in America. (Ultimate Selling Power)” He runs the award-winning website SalesAutopsy.com. Dan’s book is The Death of 20th Century Selling: 50 Hilarious Sales Blunders and How You can Profit from Them. He is currently working on a book on Sales Language and is producing the first-ever comic book for salespeople – with cartoons drawn from some of his 500+ sales stories. View Profile | Visit Website


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“The Power of Persuasion: Logic, Emotion, and Character” by Dianna Booher View Profile | Visit Website Women particularly are often tagged "emotional" when communicating persuasively about situations or decisions, and usually the connotation for that label is negative. "She should be able to look at the facts without getting so emotionally involved in the situation." Or: "Let's look at this idea a little more objectively." Or: "You've got to have more data to back up that position; otherwise, when you go into that meeting, they'll kill that project before you get it off the ground." So what's wrong with being emotional in your persuasive pitch or reacting emotionally to what you hear? Nothing. Emotions are onethird of the success equation. A sales rep couldn't understand why his buyer wouldn't make a simple inked alteration in a particular purchasing contract. The sales rep had written the wrong model number for the furniture on the contract. And when the buyer had phoned to tell him about the error, the sales rep responded, "No problem. Why don't you just line through it, ink in the correct number, submit it to your boss for approval, and we'll avoid any delays in getting in the order to the manufacturer. The purchasing agent refused, asking the rep to send a completely new version of the contract with the correct model number. Why, despite the delay, did he balk at making the inked change? Upon further investigation, the sales rep identified the problem the purchasing agent's boss had just given him a big lecture about submitting "messy" paperwork. The purchasing agent valued what his boss thought of the neat paperwork over any possible delays with the furniture order. He balked for an emotional reason, not a logical one. Another case: "I got my $6 million approved in three days after I rewrote that budget proposal!" a client recently told me. We could have tried for weeks to persuade him that his proposals were not well written. There was a logical explanation for the poor reception his budget request had received from the CEO over the previous eight months. Did logic win him over? Absolutely not. He had an immediate need——get that $6 million. His was an emotional reaction and acceptance of the "logic" of restructuring his proposal.


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If we can believe Aristotle about being persuasive communicators, we need to understand three dynamics to change people's behavior, attitudes, or opinions: logic, emotion, and character. Each plays a part in winning people over to our way of thinking——be they customers, bosses, or colleagues whose attitude or behavior we'd like to mold. In short, after your boss thinks you're trustworthy (appealing character), you have to make him or her angry at the "unfairness of the system" (appeal to emotion) so as to change that system. And then you'll have to give proof of that unfairness by supplying the widespread evidence (appeal to logic). You'll have to excite the customer about the status he or she will enjoy with your new product (appeal to emotion), and then you'll have to convince that customer that your product is the best of its kind on the market with user surveys (appeal to logic). Finally, the buyer will need to believe you're an honest salesperson who tells the complete truth (appealing character). Do you have a cause to which you'd like your peers to donate time or money? You'll have to make those peers feel compassion for the group in need (appeal to emotion), show them exactly where and how their money and time will help (appeal to logic), and then demonstrate your own integrity and concern in the process of fund-raising (appealing character). Do you want to gain funding for health-club memberships for employees in your division? You'll have to convince the executive who holds the purse strings that wellness reduces absenteeism and increases productivity by supplying statistics (appeal to logic). You'll have to create a fear of heart attacks among key executives to make them feel the potential loss (appeal to emotions). Finally, you'll have to demonstrate that your interest is not only concern for your own health but concern for the well-being of the organization as a whole (appealing character). Should anyone think Aristotle's observations have little bearing on the present day, he or she need look only to the last few presidential elections for evidence. If you'll recall, each candidate's pitch aimed to gain support for a specific political position or legislation by employing one of these tactics: Appeal to reason: "Here are the facts, voters." Appeal to emotions: "Let me tell you about my friend in Tallahasee who is out of work and has no health-care insurance." Appeal based on character: "Do you respect


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and trust this person? Look at the lies told so far." "Does this person have the experience and fortitude to carry out these promises?" Those who are successful at persuading others to accept their ideas in a business meeting, to vote a certain conviction, to buy a specific service, or to invest their life savings use all three appeals. Yet most women resist being labeled "emotional" from our counterparts in the business world or by our significant others. Instead we want to be known as rational, logical thinkers. But emotions do underlie everyone's decisions, even at work. In any persuasive transaction, aim to stir in all three ingredients: logic, emotion, character. Your success in getting others to accept your ideas will depend on all three parts of the equation.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: As author of more than 40 books, Dianna has published with Simon & Schuster/Pocket Books, Warner, McGraw-Hill, Prentice Hall, HarperCollins, and Thomas Nelson. Her latest books include The Voice of Authority: 10 Communication Strategies Every Leader Needs to Know; Speak with Confidence!™: Powerful Presentations That Inform, Inspire, and Persuade; E-WRITING: 21stCentury Tools for Effective Communication; Communicate with Confidence®!; and Get a Life Without Sacrificing Your Career. Several have been major book club selections. Her work has been published in 23 foreign editions and is also widely available on audio, video, and online courseware (WBT and CBT). View Profile | Visit Website


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“Negotiating the Price You Deserve: The Salesperson's Dilemma” by Ed Brodow View Profile | Visit Website Customer price objections can be seductive. You want the sale and the customer is giving you an easy way to close it: offer a discount. However, there are two essential reasons for resisting the objections and sticking to your price: First, closing the sale means nothing if it is not profitable. Many fine companies have gone out of business after deciding to offer major discounts. Profitability is a more realistic way of measuring success than sales volume. Second, the most satisfied customers are the ones who pay top dollar because they appreciate the value of their investment. Buyers perceive higher-priced items to be more valuable. (Think MercedesBenz, Rolex, and Giorgio Armani.) In my selling career, the best customers have always been the ones who have paid full price, and the most unhappy ones have been the buyers who received a discount. Shortly after I started my speaking and training business, I received a call from Susan, a manager at a Fortune 500 company. "We want you to train a large group of our key employees in negotiation skills," she said. "I've seen your work and I think you're the best." I was certainly very excited, as this account would be worth about $50,000. I was about to ask Susan where I should fax the contract when she dropped a bomb. "You should know," she went on, "that my boss likes somebody else, and that company is less expensive than you are. If you lower your fee, I think we can get you hired." I was faced with the classic sales negotiation dilemma: I wanted the deal, but did I have to drop my fee to get it? What, I wondered, was really going on? I could envision the following scenarios: a. The buyer was telling me the truth. If I lowered my fee, I might have a better chance of beating out the competition. b. There was no competitor. The buyer was using the "squeeze" tactic ("We can get a better deal elsewhere") as a negotiating ruse to move my fee downward. Featured Articles – SalesPractice.com

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c. This was a test of my own negotiating skills. The potential client wanted to find out whether I practiced what I preached, and how I would respond when challenged on price. d. The company had already decided to go with my competitor. They wanted a lower number from me to give them leverage in negotiating the competitor's fee. What would you have done? Would you have caved in and lowered your fee? I admitted to myself that I didn't know exactly what the situation was. Fortunately, I had enough prospects and clients "in the pipeline" to justify the decision I made on what to do next. I decided that, if I lowered my fee, the client's perception of my services would almost certainly drop, but that if I held to the price I had offered, I would at least send a positive message and have some chance to do business with Susan's company in the future. When I called my contact back, I politely refused to play ball. "I'm really sorry, Susan," I told her. "I'd love to work with you, but I can't destroy the credibility of my fee structure. My other clients will be upset if they find out that I gave you a discount." (This was certainly true.) Susan said she understood and would get back to me. A week later, Susan informed me that they had selected my competitor. "That's too bad," I said. "Please call me if I can help in any way." Two weeks after that, Susan called back and said that management had experienced a change of heart. The job was mine. After the first seminar, I sat down with Susan and talked with her about the decision-making process. "Was there really another company that your boss liked?" I asked. "Oh yes," she said. "In fact, they wanted to do business with our company so badly, they offered to put on the first seminar for nothing." "For nothing!" I repeated. "That's quite an offer. If you were so concerned about the fee, why didn't you accept?" "For the best of reasons," Susan replied. "When they offered to do the seminar for nothing, our perception of the value of their seminar was that it was worth the price. Namely, nothing." Featured Articles – SalesPractice.com

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My seminar had been perceived as being more valuable, thanks to my confident negotiating posture. The lesson is clear: If you present your price with confidence, and you are willing to walk away if necessary, the prospect will often conclude that you must be worth it. Like everything in sales, this approach will not work all the time. But it will work often enough -- if you are negotiating from a position of strength. To do that, of course, you must make prospecting and new business development a part of your daily routine. The bottom line: Brodow's Law says, "Always be willing to walk away from a negotiation." In other words, never negotiate without options. For salespeople, this means that you must have enough prospects so that you can comfortably say the magic word: "Next!"

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Ed Brodow is a motivational speaker and negotiation guru on PBS, Fox News, and Inside Edition. He is the author of Negotiation Boot Camp and Beating the Success Trap. For more information on his keynotes and seminars, call 831-372-7270, e-mail [email protected], and visit Brodow.com. View Profile | Visit Website


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“The American Idol Philosophy of Selling” by Evan Sohn View Profile | Visit Website I don’t know about your home, but my house is an American Idol home. I am not alone as American Idol is now the most valuable TV format in the world with an estimated value in excess of $2.5 billion. As we are in the midst of American Idol mania I was thinking about the lessons learned from seeing talented performers compete week after week. What makes an American Idol champion? What makes a winning American Idol performance? All things being equal how does one contestant rise above the others? Given that it isn’t always about the one who has the best voice - what makes an American Idol? The biggest reality of this reality show is the contestants need to sell themselves week after week to the American public. These 12 contestants (now down to 11) are therefore thrust into being top salespeople. The compensation plan is fierce, the payout is huge and the space in the President’s Club is limited. Here are the characteristics that make up an American Idol: The Right Place at the Right Time - a solid performer picking the wrong material is a sure fire way to get ridiculed by the judges and fall out of grace with America. Timing in sales is always important. Getting in front of the right decision maker with the right solution at the right time is more an art form than coincidence. You could be the best salesperson on your team but not returning a client call in time could be the difference between getting the deal and losing the deal. Knowing when your client is most open to your pitch is just as important as the pitch itself. You Gotta Have Heart - being emotional in what you sell is always important. People respond to those who really care about what they are selling. You have to always believe in what you are selling. If you don’t, then I suggest you sell something that you can get passionate about. Passion sells. Honesty - a lot of the judges talk time on American Idol is telling contestants to be true to who they are. A country singer should sing country and a rock and roller should always rock and roll. Putting on a bandana and carrying a chain doesn’t make a person a rock and roller and the customer is never fooled. Don’t try to convince the customer that your service or product does more than it really does. While you might get through the first few rounds, the likelihood is that you’ll soon


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get tossed. Listen - nothing pains me more than watching these young performers acting smugly when getting advice from Simon Cowell. Simon, a seasoned recording professional is always trying to get the best out of the contestants. The show is his product and he strives for excellence. Those who listen to him almost always come back the following week to rave reviews. All they have to do is listen. Selling is just as much about listening to your customer as it is talking to them (maybe even more so). Hear the feedback from your customer. Why aren’t they as excited about your offering as you think they should be? How was your pitch? Never Forget Your Lines - remembering the words to your song is selling 101 basics. Giving a presentation to a room full of people should be a conversation between you and your audience. Stopping the presentation to look up your notes ruins the flow of your presentation. Rehearse your presentation over and over again. Go over potential questions. Be prepared. Nice Guys Don’t Always Finish Last - while American Idol is supposed to be a talent contest it is just as much a personality contest. An obnoxious, egotistical and arrogant performer no matter how good never makes it to the end. Simon is quick to point out who is nice never as a matter-of-fact but always as an asset to any performer. People like to work with nice people. A sale is about forging a relationship between two parties. Choosing nice people to work with is the prerogative of the decision maker. When in doubt - be nice. So, do you think you have what it takes to be an American Idol?

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Evan Sohn founded Salesconx.com in 2007 after conducting extensive evaluations on database networking systems - this is his 5th company. For him, finding the precise sales contact within an organization was a critical but challenging task, consuming copious time and vast amounts of money. After consulting with peers and considering more than 14 million sales professionals in the U.S., Evan developed a Web portal brokering relationships between sales associates and buyers. Salesconx Inc, provides technology and services to support an online marketplace for business referrals. Prior to founding Salesconx.com, he was a senior management and marketing executive. View Profile | Visit Website


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“What Every Sales Person Should Know About Women Car Buyers” by Gerry Myers View Profile | Visit Website First and foremost, automotive salespeople need to understand that there are very real differences between men and women. While both genders like to be treated fairly and with respect by someone who is honest, professional and knowledgeable, these traits are extremely important to women. Women hear horror stories from female friends about their car buying experiences, whereas men are more likely to brag to their buddies about the great deal they got-whether it was or not. Additionally, women tend to communicate with more people and confide more personal details to each other, including both their positive and negative buying experiences. Second, women do their homework more, even before the internet’s numerous sites from which they can easily glean volumes of information prior to setting foot in a dealership. Third, realize the vast numbers of women buying their own vehicles or influencing the purchase of a spouse’s vehicle. Women buy more than 50 percent of cars and light trucks, and influence more than 85 percent of all purchases. They are no longer a peripheral bystander, but a vital part of the sales process. Fourth, developing a relationship with her is paramount to making the sale. This does not mean idle chit chat about her interests, family, and the weather. Ask questions about her needs, what she likes about her current vehicle, what she doesn’t like and what features she wants. Develop your relationship by being concerned about her needs, rather than your need to make a sale. Fifth, realize women are very busy. Their time is one of their most precious commodities and they guard it closely. Sixth, recognize it is the little things that often lose a sale. Little things, like calling her honey, flirting with her or telling her to bring her husband in, are big things to women. Seven, know that women don’t car shop for fun. If they are in your dealership, they are a serious buyer.


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Eight, make the sale and ask for referrals. Women can be a terrific source of business helping you build a solid customer base and a profitable bottom line. Quick Tips on Selling to Women When a couple comes in, give them both a business card. A very inexpensive way to let her know you consider her part of the process from the beginning. When test driving, make sure and offer a turn to her. When asking questions, address at least half of them to her. When answering a question she asked, talk to her, not her spouse. When a young woman comes in with an older man, she could be his daughter or his wife. Don’t jump to erroneous conclusions that will definitely lose a sale. If a young woman comes in by herself, assume she is the one making the buying decisions about the car and that she will be paying for it with her money.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Gerry Myers has specialized in marketing and selling more effectively to the female consumer, as well as helping corporations recruit and retain more women employees. Myers, a pioneer in the women’s market and the first author to publish a book on the subject in 1994, was instrumental in creating awareness, training programs, keynote speeches and consulting services that helped national and international companies. Today she provides innovative programs, such as creating Women's Advisory Boards that insures a competitive edge to her clients. View Profile | Visit Website


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“Managing the Millennials” by Gregory Stebbins View Profile | Visit Website Independent, tech-savvy, social, and optimistic – why are these “kids” so hard to manage? The New Millennial’s, people born after about 1981, are now entering the work force en masse. Even seasoned sales managers are having challenges helping these people become productive. They have a different approach to life, which greatly impacts their ability to sell effectively. Understanding them and some key events that took place during their youth will help you get a handle on their outlook on life in general and work in particular. While they were growing up there was a technology explosion. Their every day reality included video on multiple devices, mobile phone, computers, and iPods. They have been bombarded with marketing messages that are constantly changing. School violence and global terrorism (specifically 9-11) have made them wary about the world and helped them develop a global perspective. For the most part, poverty is something that they have seen on television. Watching their parents get downsized in the 80s and 90s has caused them to question loyalty to the company. Reality television, MySpace, Facebook, Second Life and Google have caused them to believe (and experience!) that information is available for the asking so being “transparent” (putting everything out there for all to see) is the way things should be. While I often hear comments about their lack of work ethic, those are the same comments that were leveled toward Generation X and Baby Boomers when they first entered the work force. Neuro research now tells us that the prefrontal cortex of our brain continues to mature until about the age of twenty-six. So Millennials may continue to be a little irresponsible until they’ve been on the job for a while. It’s neurological, not attitudinal. So make life a little easier on yourself and cut them some slack. What is different is their work style, motivations and view of the world, especially the corporate world. These individuals do have loyalty, which is focused on their social network and specific managers and members of the team – not on the company. Generally they have an ability to find information about anything at a


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rate that far exceeds expectations of management. What they lack is discernment about the accuracy of the information. If it’s on the Net they tend to believe it must be accurate. They can instantly communicate this information to their social network via Blogs, Instant Messaging (IM), personal Web pages and cell phones. Some companies have found out the hard way that their management mistakes are common knowledge within days, if not hours. Many of these people had parents who hovered over them during every waking hour, giving birth to the term “Helicopter Parents.” With probably hundreds of possible activities, from soccer to music lessons, Millennials have been over-committed and over-scheduled. They also have been smothered in praise with constant reinforcement about how great they are: blue ribbons for the entire team, there are no losers, etc. They expect recognition for everything, even the most mundane activities. They may not know their own strengths and weaknesses because there have not been many opportunities for self evaluation or honest, constructive criticism. This creates your greatest management challenge. How do you help them understand that there are indeed losers as well as winners in the sales world? How do you provide constructive criticism without devastating their psyche? Keep in mind that these people will tend to look at you as a parental substitute. I know that makes most sales managers more than a little uncomfortable. Nonetheless, since their parents didn’t wean them, you get to do that. And, generally, this is going to be a shock to the Millennial. You’ll need to teach them basic decision making by coaching and guiding them step-by-step, before you tell them, “You decide.” Don’t be surprised if they’re calling you constantly asking the simplest questions. Here’s a four step process that can be helpful in guiding them in decision-making (this process may take two to six months total): 1. The first time they approach you, work with them to think through at least three options. Then make the decision for them. Having them consider options is the first step of developing the ability to reason. 2. After this, when they want your input, make sure they come in with the three options already thought about. Then help them understand the consequences of each option. Add in other options if they haven’t considered all of the consequences. Then, you make the decision. 3. The third stage is that they come in with three options, understand Featured Articles – SalesPractice.com

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the consequences and a recommendation for the course of action. Either agree with their course of action or make suggestions. Essentially they will be making the recommendation which you are approving. 4. The final stage is to cut them loose and have them handle a situation on their own. However, also have them provide a written report (IM or Text message is OK). The report needs to tell you what the situation was, the options they considered and the decision they made. This step won’t last that long as their need for independence will kick in and they’ll just stop coming to you with every little situation. Keep in mind that these individuals are going to need much more coaching than their predecessors. The good news is they are used to being coached. After all, many of them have been on soccer teams since they were four or five years old. Like all previous generations they’ll be coming into the work world thinking that they have all the answers and know how to do the job better than you do. Once we turn about 35, we begin to realize that we don’t have all the answers and things may not be as they seem. Developing mastery at work requires us to listen intently, understand the history of each situation and gather the different perspectives of each of the players involved. However, growing up protected and interacting with others largely through technology, has created a generation whose people savvy is very limited. Their ability to read a person in a face-to-face situation (and almost all selling is face-to-face) will tend to limit their success, especially when selling to people of a different generation. Help them understand the nuances of body language, the uniqueness of each person’s office and what the contents of that office reveals about the customer. (Shameless promotion: Our book, PeopleSavvy for Sales Professionals covers these points in detail.) In your coaching efforts with Millennials, your focus and approach may need to be different from others you have worked with. You’ll need to provide structure and give information in bite-size pieces. Praise for what they do is important to their self-esteem. If they’ve messed up you’ll need to present it as a development opportunity. Course correction instead of scolding or brow-beating is a better approach. Millennials generally have short attention spans, so keep your coaching sessions short. If you go beyond about 20 minutes you will lose them. Use technology freely before and after the session; they’ll come in to the session better prepared and will actually appreciate the follow up. Featured Articles – SalesPractice.com

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If you’re not comfortable using IM, it’s time to learn. Their mobile phone is like a third arm and gives you more access to them than you’ve probably ever had with anyone. Have frequent coaching sessions. Remember they’ve been sitting in front of video games knowing instantly what their score is and how they compare with others. Waiting to give them feedback at their annual performance review won’t work. In fact, without feedback, they will probably be long gone before that performance review happens. Provide the rationale behind your coaching. This generation is hungry to learn and if they feel they’re learning from you, they will be loyal—to you. If they feel like their skills aren’t being developed, they’ll leave. In some ways you’ll need to teach them patience. They’re used to instant gratification. On the plus side, their impatience for results can be a bonus in the sales world. On the negative, they can be easily frustrated when they don’t get immediate results. Work/life balance is important to Millennials. One of the biggest challenges to Baby Boomer managers is that Millennials don’t want the same life style. Many Baby Boomers were brought up in sales to believe that if you were working from 6 AM to 6 PM, you were still only working half days. Millennials want “time and flexibility” often before financial compensation and benefits. No other generation has had “time and flexibility” in their top three drivers. And finally, transparency or confidentiality is often mismatched between Millennial and manager. It is not unusual that a private discussion between a manager and employee becomes public. You’ll need to teach your Millennials why discretion is important, and it may be difficult for them to understand. If your entire life is on the Web for anyone to see—even pictures in a drunken stupor at a college party— they just won’t understand why someone wants to keep something private or would be embarrassed about it being public. Be patient and explain why it’s to their benefit. In other words, you may need to sell them on the idea. Smart managers that focus on developing Millinneal’s people savvy and who understand flexible work roles and effective virtual teams while leveraging technology will help them become a valuable asset sooner rather than later. Managers who meet the challenges of working with, not against, this generation will reap the rewards that come with shorter ramp times and more rapidly gaining some very valuable sales professionals.


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ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Greg Stebbins is an internationally recognized authority on sales psychology. With more than 30 years of business experience, he applies a wealth of knowledge, know how, and high impact ideas to the challenges his clients bring to him. He is the author of PeopleSavvy for Sales Professionals which is available at www.peoplesavvy.com/book.htm or amazon.com. View Profile | Visit Website


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“Be Realistic: There is no Limit to What You Can Do” by Jim Cathcart View Profile | Visit Website Have you ever thought about what you could do, if you really decided to? I'm not merely talking about what your skills, education and talents are capable of. I'm talking about what is really possible for you. There is a very real possibility that you can do virtually anything. Not alone, not with out new information, but certainly within your ultimate grasp. Now many people would say to me, "Jim, be realistic. Some things are just not possible." To them I say, a realist is simply a pessimist who doesn't want to admit it. I've never heard a "realist" take an optimistic posture on any topic. They always say, "Let's be realistic." and then go on to explain why your idea can't be done. Imagine a realist saying, "Realistically, we don't yet know what the possibilities are. This could be easier than we think!" Better, eh? One thing I have learned over the years is that luck really does come to those who commit to a goal. Scientists and philosophers call it "synchronicity." It is when things come together in an unexplainable way to help you reach your destination. Sometimes you just happen to meet someone who has the answer you need or shares your interests. At other times it is written off as "timing" or blind luck. I don't see it that way. I believe that there are some universal principles at work which most people miss. There have been references to this phenomenon in philosophical and religious literature throughout history. Without waxing poetic, here is what goes on. When any person makes a decision to bring about a certain outcome, the entire universe starts the process of making it happen. As long as the person persists in the belief that they are creating the desired result, the process continues. When doubt, hatred, or fear dominate the person, the process stops and other forces direct the world's energies in other positive directions. This is why there is "power" in positive thinking.


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Sometimes we express a strong desire and the result occurs immediately. We call this a miracle. At other times we strive long and hard without visible progress. The operative word there is "visible". There are too many elements in the world for us to be conscious of how they all interact. But the moment we decide to do what it takes to create a result, the universe bends toward us to assist. This continues unless we do something to stop the process. That is why I say there is nothing you can't do. There are things that might not be worth doing but almost anything can be done somehow. To do such things requires a certain state of mind. It requires optimism, determination, clarity, love for all mankind and humility. Optimism is the only productive way to think. Not pollyanna blind faith in spite of the facts, just the continuing belief that there is a way and that you will ultimately find it. Determination is to do what is necessary even if it is not convenient, if you are not in the mood, if it takes more than you expected, and if it is not fair, meaning that you have to contribute more than others. Clarity of focus is essential in order to activate things in your favor. So goal setting in writing is essential to get things going. The clearer your focus, the more compelling your influence becomes. When you believe unflinchingly in your cause, others will be drawn to you. Love of all humanity means respect for the dignity of and sensitivity to the needs of others. Contrary to Gordon Gekko's line in the movie Wall Street, greed does not work, because it separates you from others. Only love and respect will connect you to all who might ultimately help. And finally, humility. The biblical way of expressing this thought is, "Not my will, but Thine, be done." If we realize how little we know, we will be a lot more humble. Emerson said, "Desire is possibility seeking expression." If you truly want something, the possibility of it surely exists. That does not mean that it is a good idea for you. It just means that it could happen. But if you are dedicated to achieving something deeply and sincerely, then it is incumbent upon you to pursue it. Where the problems arise is when we decide that we already know what it will take to do the job. Far too many variables exist for us to really "know" what it takes in any instance. So we must move forward based on what we know, while listening to the messages the world is sending us. We sometimes find that an even better outcome is available to us through a simple change in direction. At other times we simply need to learn the lesson life has to teach us at a given point and then move on in a new direction. We never know how valuable that life Featured Articles – SalesPractice.com

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lesson will be later on as we pursue a greater goal. So I encourage you to be realistic, there is no limit to what you can do.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Jim Cathcart, CSP, CPAE is founder and president of Cathcart Institute, Inc. and an advisor to the Schools of Business at Pepperdine University and California Lutheran University. He is one of the most widely recognized professional speakers in the world. As the author of 14 books and scores of recorded programs, his students number in the hundreds of thousands. He is a past president of the National Speakers Association (NSA), winner of the Cavett Award, member of the Speaker Hall of Fame (CPAE), Certified Speaking Professional (CSP), a member of the exclusive Speakers Roundtable, 20 of the world's top speakers, and, in the year 2001, recipient of the Golden Gavel Award from Toastmasters International. View Profile | Visit Website


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“9 Voice Mail Blunders: Strategies and Tactics to Tackle Voice Mail” by Jim Domanski View Profile | Visit Website It is not surprising that so many sales reps complain about not having their voice mail messages returned. Judging by the dozen and half voice mails I have received from sales people over the past couple of weeks the reason is obvious: they are lousy. Sales reps complain about the impact of voice mail on their selling success but often they are their own worst enemies. Here is a list of common voice mail blunders and how you can manage them. Blunder #1: Leaving a VM too Soon The first tip in managing voice mail is NOT to leave a voice mail message. The trick is to get a live prospect and that often means trying different times. Prepare a list of at least fifty or so prospects. Try calling them earlier (e.g., start at 7:30) or later (after 5:00) in the day. Don’t leave a message, simply dial. If there is no answer hang up and move to the next name on the list. Cycle the list for about an hour with the objective of getting a live prospect. Try doing this every day for about two weeks. Blunder #2: Not Listening When you do encounter voice mail LISTEN to what the prospect has to say. Some have bland generic messages (“I’m not in. Leave a message”) but others might give you some clues about how to approach them. For instance, suppose the message says this: “Hi this is Pete Prospectis. Today is Monday, May 16th and I will be out of the office until Thursday May, 18th. If you’d like to leave your name, number and a detailed message I will get back to you as soon as I can.” Note that Pete provided the date. It implies he interacts with voice mail so that when you do leave a message the chances are pretty good that he will listen to it. Because the message is detailed, one gets the impression that Pete is a detail person. This suggests you might want to be equally detailed in your approach. But more significantly, Mr. Prospectis is out till Wednesday. There is no Featured Articles – SalesPractice.com

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point in leaving a message at this stage because there are probably thirty other messages waiting for him. Even if you leave a good message there is a pretty good chance that it will be lost in the chaos of catching up. Finally, and this is so critical, don’t call Pete on Thursday! His day will be hectic after having been gone for three days. Think about it. Call on Friday when things have calmed down. If you have to leave a message, do so but again at least you increase your chances of it being heard. Blunder #3: Failure to Research Over the last month or so, I have received voice messages from vendors who assumed I was a long distance company, a service bureau, a telephone manufacturer, and a high tech firm. Simply clicking onto my web site will tell you what I do…and it’s none of the above. The sales reps wasted my time and theirs. But the sad thing is they are probably leaving dozens of other similar messages to the wrong targets. Of course, when they do not get a reply they get discouraged. They become victims of their poor preparation. Learn a little about your prospect. It does not have to be a lot but enough to craft a message that is relevant. Blunder #4: Providing Infomercials One of the greatest voice mail tragedies is leaving an infomercial i.e., a grotesquely long, delirious message that tells the prospect everything and anything. In effect, it’s like a radio commercial over voice mail. Think about this for a moment from the prospect’s perspective: she is inundated with voice mails all day long. The last thing she needs is your product diatribe. I assure you that the prospect will tire by the third line and quickly erase your message. Blunder #5: Poor Delivery As if infomercials were not enough, some sales reps compound the problem with poor delivery. I am talking about the “… aahhhs….ummmmms…errr… duhs…” that are liberally peppered throughout the message. And I am especially talking about monotone deliveries that put the prospect to sleep. You have about 5-8 seconds to catch your listener’s attention and keeping it is even tougher. Understand this: about 15% of your message is communicated by the actual words you use i.e., the message you leave. The remaining 85% of the message is communicated by the tone of your voice. If you Featured Articles – SalesPractice.com

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sound lifeless, unsure, hesitant or if you speak too fast or too slow, or if you are too loud or too soft: you will lose the prospects interest. So here’s what you need to do: Jot down what you want to say. Write it in sentences or point form; whatever works for you. Then practice delivering it a few times before dialing. The message should flow trippingly and convincingly from you lips. There is no excuse for a poorly delivered message. Blunder #6: Insipid Messages I am floored by the messages that are left on my voice mail. Stunned. Shocked. Dismayed. Sometimes I am amused but rarely am I impressed much less interested. The reason? The messages don’t grab me by the collar and say “Listen.” Instead, they a drab and speeches about their product or their company. Borrriiinnng! . A good voice mail message has four components: -

your name, your company, a message that intrigues and entices a call to action

Here is just one example of an intriguing message: Mr. Wallace, this is Vic Vendor calling from Altace Inc. Mr. Wallace, I have a question on extended learning programs that I am told only you can answer. Could you please give me a call at ____? This is a powerful voice message. Note how the rep uses the prospect’s name a couple of times. Using the name gets the prospect to listen more carefully to the words. Next, the rep creates intrigue and mystery with his message about being the only person who can answer the question. This flatters the prospect at some level and creates curiosity. Blunder #7: Not Integrating Other Mediums If there is more than one way to skin a cat, there is more than one way to leave a message. Make your voice mail part of an overall contact strategy. Voice mail should be just one of the tactics you use to garner interest and stand out from the crowd. Supplement your voice message with an old fashioned letter. Consider sending a fax. If you have the e-mail address of your prospect, send a brief message. Use these mediums in combination. For example, you might leave a message telling the prospect to expect a “package” in the mail. This alerts her to keep his eye out for “something” which, in itself, is intriguing. Perhaps you could use a fax as a follow up message to the package rather than another voice mail. The point is you have to be creative. Some prospects respond better to e-mail than voice mail, Featured Articles – SalesPractice.com

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others to fax versus mail. Blunder 8: Lack of Persistence One of the BIGGEST blunders is a simple lack of persistence. Of the all the voice mails I received over the last two weeks not one rep…not a single, solitary rep…has called and left another message! Statistically, about 87% of sales reps give up after s single half hearted attempt. About 95% give up after a second message. Personally, I rarely listen to voice mails from vendors because I figure if it is important enough they will call back. They rarely ever do. That tells the whole story. I recommend that sales reps leave four voice mail messages spaced three business days apart. I call it the 4/3 strategy. When you do the ‘math’ it reveals about two calendar weeks of follow up but spaced apart so that it is not too overbearing. I will supplement the messages with a fax or e-mail (if I have it) or a letter. I want to the prospect to know that I will not give up easily; I will be polite but persistent. Blunder #9: Stalking The last blunder is not nearly as common as a lack of persistence but it does exist and it is sinister and frightening in nature. It occurs when a sales rep calls and leaves a voice mail message (or messages) every day for days on end. Not long ago at a training seminar a sales rep bragged that he left 38 (yes, thirty eight) messages to a prospect. That is not prospecting, it’s stalking. It’s a waste of the sales rep’s time and energy …and you can bet it was not endearing to the poor prospect. (I’d be calling the police). Summary Avoid these classic voice mail blunders. Yes, it takes a little more time and effort but that is precisely what will set you apart from all the other sales reps who are calling your prospects. Go to it.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Jim Domanski is president and CEO of Teleconcepts Consulting and is considered one of North America’s and Europe’s foremost leading experts in the field of business to business tele-sales consulting and training. With clients around the world, Jim has pioneered some of the most innovative and successful tele-sales strategies in today’s marketplace. View Profile | Visit Website


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“Success in a Heartbeat” by Joanne Victoria View Profile | Visit Website Success in a heartbeat is simpler than you think. The book, “The Secret”, may talk about the Law of attraction, i.e., drawing something to you. Pushy For a Moment is about what is already inside of you. What if you could live the life you want rather than chase the story of what you want to be? Opportunities appear when you open up to infinite possibilities and own a vision for your life. Create a method to continually achieve success with Pushy for a Moment. What is a Pushy Moment? It's that moment when an intuitive flash comes to your mind, but you do not act upon it because of the rules you or society set for the situation. You simply lack the confidence to believe that your ideas carry great weight and you don’t want to be rude or offend anyone. From a very young age, we are conditioned to be polite. But who defines polite? If a quick interruption propels you toward your future, wouldn’t you want someone to tap you on the shoulder and make a suggestion? Being Pushy is about discovering opportunities for you; how simple actions change peoples’ lives. If you've had an intuitive moment that you didn't act on, you now have permission to go for it. Be Pushy for a Moment and maximize your ability to find new information and create a life that holds meaning for you. What have you got to lose? Nothing except a life you'll love because you simply allowed yourself to act on a hunch! When you encounter a new decision point in your daily routine, you instantly evaluate it. Your instincts immediately trigger a response to your past experiences, education or other lessons. This moment, if captured without your mind censoring it, becomes your next right step. This instant blip, what many label as a hunch or feeling, instead reveals what's real. People who practice being Pushy for a Moment recognize this feeling as the reality of the situation. Your ability to move through a situation as it occurs leads you to your next right step, and ultimately, to achieve the task at hand.


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Being Pushy for a Moment is about how you treat yourself. Rather than quickly dismissing what you feel, tap into the power behind these strong thoughts. They are connected with the reality that crossed your path in the past and bear powerful solutions that will be revealed once you listen for them. These authentic insights prepare you for success by leading you to your next appropriate step. No matter how prepared we are or how many times we double-check our strategies, unforeseen occurrences may influence our path to success. Unexpected twists and turns can hamper our progress and stop us dead in our tracks, unless we have the confidence to move forward. The confidence necessary to conquer any challenge and achieve your dreams grows from releasing the power of your thoughts. It begins and ends with being Pushy for a Moment. Constant adjustments are part of any successful journey. By being Pushy for a Moment, you allow yourself to tap into your intuitive knowledge and make clear choices while maintaining your energy and focus. Each Pushy for a Moment instance comprises the basic building blocks for your abundant life. Success is about moving forward despite any challenges you may encounter. Actions move you forward to experience accomplishment. It begins by cultivating confidence in you no matter what outside influences exist. Enjoy the ride, trust yourself and be successful in a heartbeat.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Joanne Victoria, owner of New Directions in Silverdale, WA is the creator of VisionEtc™, a series of programs for independent professionals, entrepreneurs, and small business owners who want to achieve more and still be true to who they really are. She is a vision and life coach, mentor, business consultant, , speaker and writer. Joanne is the author of two books: Lighting Your Path! How to Create the Life You Want, and Vision with a Capital V — Create the Business of Your Dreams. View Profile | Visit Website


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“Avoiding Sales Burnout” by Joe Guertin View Profile | Visit Website When I was 30 years old, I quit my job. I had been selling advertising for three years (not a very long time by any means) but I felt completely 'burned out.' The grass looked a whole lot greener everywhere else but inside my cubicle. My feelings were that I had gone as far as I could go at that particular job. My account list was shrinking. So was my income…and self-esteem. My perception of our own management was fading fast. Some nights, I couldn't sleep. Some mornings, I couldn't wake up (or didn't want to). Sales is a high-energy, high-demand profession. We're taught how to talk on the phone, ask questions and overcome objections, but seldom are we taught how to cope with the chaos. If you're looking to restore the pizzazz to selling, and the fun and money that goes with it, here are four areas to work on. I suggest you study the role each one now has in your life and, if any of them could use improvement, start an action plan now to make it happen. 1) Give Yourself a Fresh Start. When we get into a funk, we tend to dwell on it. Starting fresh here means leave the past in the past. If you've been the low biller at the paper, stop thinking like the low biller. If you haven't been seeing enough customers, stop dwelling on failures and focus on fresh opportunities. "Fake it 'til you make it." Start thinking, acting and talking like a peak performer. This isn't fluff. It's an essential ingredient to your success. 2) Change Your Routine. Make a full and complete change! The time you wake up in the morning, the time you leave for work, your daytime habits…everything. Try taking an early morning jog. Eat a healthy breakfast. Take a new route to work. Restructure your day (avoid 'time wasters' like gossip interruptions and excessive, habitual coffee breaks). Old habits and outcomes go hand in hand. 3) Build a New Action Plan. Link your daily planner to your outcome goals. Focus on revenue-generating activity which, in outside sales, means face-to-face with new prospects and, with inside sales, means more phone time with more people who can buy. Commit yourself to it.


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Measure your progress and never wrap up a day without giving yourself a personal, 'no-excuses' assessment. 4) Take Action in Your Personal Life. Sales slumps can cause, or be the result of issues outside of work. If you have family at home, make sure they get the good you, not the frustrated, frazzled you. Put them first and the rest will follow. Finances, too, can keep a person from thinking clearly. If bills are mounting, take action. You'd be amazed at how good it feels to itemize them and get on the phone to each of them to arrange more comfortable payments. There are low and no-cost credit counselors in your community who can help. Adjusting your dietary, exercise and sleeping habits can change you from being lethargic to an energetic dynamo, ready to take on all challenges! Oh, and I did get back into advertising sales. The very next day. If I had known then what I know now, I could have saved myself a lot of anxiety. When we say 'keep the fire burning,' we don't mean the candle at both ends! It means consciously keeping yourself 'fired up.' And that's a sure way to avoid getting burned out.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: One of America’s hottest sales trainers, Joe Guertin has 25 years of outside sales experience, specializing in new business and customer relationship development. As a sought-after speaker, and consultant, Joe has worked with thousands of salespeople, managers and business principals, targeting specific areas of development, including internal sales systems, customer development strategies and team skill-building. His firm, The Guertin Group, conducts customized corporate sales training, both live and online. View Profile | Visit Website


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“Customers for Life” by John Boe View Profile | Visit Website The most successful companies place great value on developing lifetime relationships with their customers. In today's competitive marketplace, they are aware that their customers are aggressively prospected and their loyalty cannot be taken for granted. Customer focused companies recognize that relationship building and follow on service are critical components for promoting both customer retention and revenue growth. First Build a Relationship Today we have access to innovative tools such as the Internet, cell phones, faxes, and voicemail all designed to enhance our ability to communicate. Nevertheless, even with all of these technological tools at our disposal, the alarming number of dissatisfied customers, lost sales and failed relationships all reflect the fact that none of us are as effective at communicating as we would like to believe. Temperament understanding helps to foster effective communication. Research in the field of human psychology indicates people are born into one of four primary behavioral styles: aggressive, expressive, passive, or analytical. Each of these four temperament styles requires a unique approach and communication strategy. For example, if you are working with the impatient, aggressive style, they want a quick fix and a bottom line solution. Under pressure they can be ill tempered and quick to anger. Give them options so you don't threaten their need for control. Don't waste their time with chitchat - stick to business. While at the other extreme, the stress-prone analytical style requires more information and is interested in every detail. Their cautious and analytical nature makes them susceptible to buyer's remorse. Be sensitive to their need for reassurance and guarantees. Once you learn how to identify each of the four primary behavioral styles you will be able to work more effectively with all of your customers. Communicate Effectively Recognize the importance of nonverbal communication and learn to "listen with your eyes." It might surprise you to know that research indicates over 70 percent of our communication is perceived nonverbally. In fact, studies show that body language has a much greater impact and reliability than the spoken word.


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Create a favorable first impression and build rapport quickly by using open body language. In addition to smiling and making good eye contact, you should show the palms of your hands, keep your arms unfolded, and your legs uncrossed. You can develop harmony by "matching and mirroring" your customer's body language gestures. Matching and mirroring is unconscious mimicry. It is a way of subconsciously telling another that you like them and agree with them. Improve your active listening skills. To develop and encourage conversation, use open-ended questions to probe the meaning behind your prospect's statements. Occasionally repeat your prospect's words verbatim. By restating their key words or phrases you not only clarify communication, but also build rapport. Keep your attention focused on what your customer is saying and avoid the temptation to interrupt, argue, or dominate the conversation. Little Things Make a Big Difference Rendering quality customer service is both a responsibility and an opportunity. Often salespeople view customer service as an administrative burden that takes them away from making a sale. The truth is that customer service provides opportunities for cross-selling, up-selling, and generating quality referrals. Customers describe quality customer service in terms of attention to detail and responsiveness. Customer satisfaction surveys consistently point to the fact that the little things make a big difference. Not surprisingly, the top two customer complaints with regards to customer service are unreturned phone calls and a failure to keep promises and commitments. Make an effort to see yourself through your customers' eyes. True customer service is meeting and surpassing your customers' expectations. Successful salespeople "go the extra mile" when providing service and turn the customers they serve into advocates to help them promote their business. Your referrals and follow on business are in direct proportion to the quality and quantity of service you render on a daily basis. Want more referrals? Improve your service! Here are five powerful customer service tips. 1. Under-promise and over-deliver. Develop a reputation for reliability; never make a promise that you can't keep. Your word is your bond.


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2. Pay attention to the small things. Get in the habit of returning phone calls, e-mails and other correspondence quickly. Follow up, follow up, and follow up. 3. Stay in contact and keep good records. Take the time to jot down notes from meetings and phone calls making certain to record all relevant information. Maintain a written record of service. This is especially helpful when clients are reassigned to new agents. Setup a suspense system to track important contact dates such as client review calls and birthdays. Consider sending a personal note or an article of interest every six months. 4. Give your customers a promotional gift. Consider sending them a letter opener, coffee mug, or a calendar with your picture and contact information. 5. Establish a feedback system to monitor how your customers perceive the quality and quantity of the service you provide. Service is not defined by what you think it is, but rather how your customers perceive its value. When it comes to customer service, perception is reality. Progressive companies emphasize commitment to customer service from the top down by establishing training standards and continuously monitoring customer satisfaction. Companies that fail to implement an effective customer service program actually do a disservice to their customers and unknowingly, leave the backdoor open to their competitors. If you do it right, sales and service blend seamlessly and you will exceed your customers' expectations!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: John Boe is an entertaining speaker with a powerful message and a passion to help salespeople reach their full potential. He has devoted the last two-decades to training and motivating high-performance, successful salespeople. His knowledge has been synthesized into one of the most powerful sales training programs ever created on the subject of peak-performance selling and personal achievement! John’s client list includes industry leaders such as Genworth Financial, RE/MAX Real Estate, Volvo, Chicago Title and AFLAC. In addition, he has been a featured speaker for prestigious national associations such as The Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America and The National Association of Independent Life Brokerage Agencies. When you book John for your next sales meeting or convention, you get a nationally recognized author, sales trainer and business motivational speaker with an impeccable track record in the meeting industry. John’s results can be measured through decreased personnel turnover, increased sales effectiveness and customer satisfaction!


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View Profile | Visit Website


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“Are Your Salespeople Selling to the Right Accounts?” by Jon Brooks View Profile | Visit Website You have good products; you have good salespeople, so why aren’t you selling more? There may be any number of reasons for lackluster sales, but one area many companies take for granted is: understanding if their salespeople are selling to the right customers. Are you spending the most time and money on those target customers with the highest business (or revenue) potential? Or, are you unintentionally handicapping yourself by having your salespeople waste their efforts on accounts with little or unknown business potential, or accounts where you’ve already captured the majority of the market share. Stratification of your target market is one of the most important things you can do to maximize the results of your entire sales organization. Stratification means segmenting your current and prospective customers into groups in order to most efficiently utilize your resources. The foremost advantage of stratification is that it ensures the highest return on every dollar you invest in your sales and marketing efforts by matching the highest amount of money you spend to accounts with the highest business potential. Ask yourself, “do we stratify accounts, and if so, what criteria is this stratification based on?” Stratifying Accounts There are several ways to stratify accounts within your target markets: by total revenue, number of employees, or industry segment. These stratification criteria may be good as an initial base, but it may not include the most critical information you want to know about your potential customers - "how much revenue potential is in each account?" One of the most effective criteria to use in segmenting your target market is the revenue potential for all of your products and services within each company. This doesn’t mean basing it on how much you sold to that account last year, nor is it based on how much revenue you think you can win. Instead, it is the total potential revenue that a company “can” invest in your products and services. Example: If your company sells semiconductor chips, stratify your accounts based on how much those accounts spend annually on semiconductor chips comparable to the chips your company offers (Company A spends $500,000, Company B


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spends $20,000). There are many ways to find this information, however, we believe one of the most accurate ways is simply to talk to your target customers and ask them! Why stratify accounts based on revenue potential? Unlike other criteria, focusing on revenue potential allows you to: - Gain a true indicator of how much revenue potential is within each account. Not just what you “think” is there. - Determine the best approach for selling into each account to achieve the greatest return on your investment. Does the business potential warrant outside representation, direct mail, or maybe a phone sales representative? - Measure the impact and performance of your salespeople on each account. For instance, if an account has revenue potential of $100,000 and your salesperson has currently won $10,000, is that acceptable, or do they need to improve their performance? Primarily focus salespeople on accounts with a higher level of potential while utilizing other less expensive marketing efforts such as direct mail or e-mail campaigns on lower potential accounts. Sales territories are now on a level playing field. Many salespeople complain that their territory is not as good as others. This gives you a quantitative measurement to see exactly how much potential is in each person’s territory and how much market share they are winning. Many organizations place account stratification very low on their priority list. They sacrifice the long term potential revenues for a few dollars right now by focusing their salespeople on any prospect, regardless of business potential. The problem with this approach is the enormous waste of time and energy salespeople spend on accounts with limited potential, or accounts where they’ve already gained the majority of the market share. Companies that see little value stratifying accounts also wonder why they aren’t gaining market share, revenues, profits, or the highest return on their investment. In the meantime, their salespeople are frustrated because they’re “running on the hamster wheel” and not making the commission dollars they’ve dreamed about. Conclusion Which path has your sales organization taken? Are your salespeople Featured Articles – SalesPractice.com

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spending their days chasing deals, or are they strategically selling into qualified accounts to foster a long term business partnership. If you’re looking for long term success in areas like revenues, profits, and customer and employee satisfaction, direct your attention to stratifying accounts the right way.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Brooks Dreyfus was founded by two partners to help companies sell more effectively to middle market accounts through the use of inside sales. Rather than outsourcing key areas of your company or spending millions of dollars on technology in the hopes of increased productivity, Brooks Dreyfus creates a systematic methodology for customers to use as the foundation for improving their situation. View Profile | Visit Website


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“Become Fully Accountable For Your Success” by Keith Rosen View Profile | Visit Website Have you ever done something that you know is not in your best interest? Have you ever avoided doing something that is in your best interest? In either of these scenarios you were probably able to justify your behavior as well as your line of thinking and most of all; avoid being accountable. While that may sting a little bit, allow me to introduce to you a new definition for this type of behavior. A diversionary tactic is an action, excuse, or belief you hide behind that justifies your behavior and performance, providing you with the out so you do not have to be accountable for your performance, responsibilities, goals or the situations you put yourself in. Other examples of diversionary tactics are as follows: · An excuse for the behavior you really don't want anymore. · An action, a lack of action or a belief that keeps you from being accountable or looking at the real truth in a situation. · A persistent or constant complaint. · A source of energy. (Even though it may be a negative energy source, human beings tap into any available energy source, even if it causes additional problems, stress, and difficulties.) · A justification for doing something you are better off not doing which isn't aligned with your goals and objectives. Some non-negotiable tasks, activities, and priorities in your life may be obvious, such as your commute, showing up for work, engaging in your favorite hobby or pastime, and spending time with family. However, some may not be so visible, such as prospecting, practicing self-care, one-to-one time with your employees, planning, goal setting, or putting time aside for professional development. If there are activities you need to engage in that support your lifestyle and will truly determine whether or not you will reach your personal and professional goals, it's essential that you make these tasks nonnegotiable rather than optional. Otherwise, you'll find that they have tendency to take a back seat to other activities that may need to get done and have some degree of importance.


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You know, the activities or tasks that you may be more comfortable doing (such as cleaning your office, doing paperwork, responding to emails, helping other people, compiling data, customer service, working on making your marketing material perfect) but don't significantly move you forward. Instead, they keep you stuck in maintenance mode, allowing you to do just enough to stay afloat. Then, you may have conversations with yourself that sound like, "That's okay, I was busy today. I'll do that tomorrow." Or, "I just wasn't able to find the time to get to prospecting today." And wouldn't you know it, something else always seems to come up! I don't suppose this has ever happened to you. This busy work will disguise the truth, creating the illusion that you're working hard, simply because you feel busy. These diversionary tactics enable you to do everything else but the activities that would dramatically accelerate your success. Just ask any salesperson who has to prospect to build their business. They can justify practically any and every activity that will take them away from prospecting, allowing them to major in the minor activities that act as a diversion to doing what's truly needed to build their business. If you, “Can't seem to "find the time,” for these activities, I have yet to stumble across time that I just happen to "find." It becomes a neverending search, an exercise in futility. Consider that these nonnegotiable activities that you may be avoiding must become as habitual as waking up in the morning, taking a shower, brushing your teeth, and breathing. These are the activities you do, (hopefully) without a second thought. Uncover your diversionary tactics. Once you do, you'll then be able to make the choice whether or not to continue to take part in them or the activities that serve you best. To further illustrate the importance of uncovering and eliminating your diversionary tactics, consider the cost you incur by not making certain activities non-negotiable. For example, what does it cost you if you don't prospect; professional satisfaction, selling opportunities, peace of mind, income, your career? If you're looking for some more examples of diversionary tactics, here they are. Fear of failure (or Success): "I'm afraid of failure yet I won't take the steps to ensure my success at prospecting. Therefore, if I sit back and do nothing, then I can never fail at anything!" Featured Articles – SalesPractice.com

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Perfectionism/'Either Or' Thinking: "Either I create the perfect prospecting system to use or I don't prospect at all. There's no middle ground here. Therefore, I can't cold call just yet because my prospecting system isn't perfect! Once I create the perfect system, then I will begin to prospect." (And when will that be?) Taking It All On: "I can't delegate these tasks that other people may be able to do because they will never do it as good as I can. Therefore, it's just easier if I do it myself. That's why I never have enough time to prospect." (Great, now you can become an expert in busywork or the activities that aren't the best use of your time or skills, rather than the activities that are going to make you successful.) Been There, Done That: "The last time I attempted to build my business through prospecting it was a waste of time. Therefore, I know that prospecting won't work for me. (Did you ever consider that it was more about your approach to prospecting that wasn't effective? If you change your approach, you change your results so be careful about learning the wrong lesson.) Playing It Safe: "Sure I've been prospecting. I mean, I've been targeting my current accounts to see if there are any service issues that need to be handled and whether I can get more business from them. After all, you need to take care of your current customers, right?" (Do you want to survive or thrive? Your choice.) The Accountability Trap (or lack thereof): This is one of my favorites. The accountability trap is yet another diversionary tactic. I had a client, Tim, who owned a profitable business and was looking to take his company to the next level of success. At the end of our meetings, we would discuss the measurable tasks that Tim would choose to complete by our next meeting. I noticed, however, that at the end of our meeting, he never took the time to write down the tasks he committed to finishing. So, when we met the following week for our coaching session, I would ask him about the work he said he would have completed. Tim responded by saying, "Oh, I completely forgot!" I gave him the benefit of the doubt the first time, even the second time this occurred. During our third meeting, the writing was on the wall. Tim's diversionary tactic had been exposed! Since he didn't write things down, he didn't remember what he said he would commit to doing. And because he didn't remember it, he didn't have to be accountable for it. Featured Articles – SalesPractice.com

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Not Having A Schedule: Consider for a moment that the absence of a routine frees you from being accountable for doing certain things you may not want to do but have to do in order to reach your goals (customer service, expense reports, prospecting, planning, finding a better career opportunity, getting in better physical shape, etc.). Here's another diversionary tactic. "I'm so busy that I don't have the time to create my routine!" Allow your schedule to hold you accountable for doing what you need to do to create the results and the lifestyle you want. Your routine is where your day starts and where it ends. After all, life works a whole lot easier when you do what you say you are going to do. 'To Do' Lists: If you look at your to do list, do you have a deadline associated with each task? A task without a deadline is yet another diversionary tactic. Writing down a long list of tasks or activities that are not scheduled and have no timelines or completion dates associated with them is another way to avoid being accountable. Since you are keeping the timeline open ended, you don't have to complete them by any specific date. Everyone Comes Before Me: One of my clients, Mary, was telling me that she blocked out Mondays and Fridays for marketing, professional development, research and new business development activities. When I asked her if she honored this, she paused for a moment and then replied, "No." Mary shared with me the fear she experienced about blocking out two full days, even though she knew that in order for her to build her practice this was a priority. So, inevitably, a client would call and ask to see her on a Friday or Monday. Rather than honoring the appointment she made with herself, she would set the appointment with the client. Mary said she had a real hard time saying "No" to her clients. After all, if she said "No" to them, maybe they would go elsewhere, right? Either that, or she felt her clients wouldn't be able to meet with her at another time. I challenged Mary on this and said, "For the next two weeks, would you be willing to honor the commitment you made to yourself on Mondays and Fridays?" Reluctantly, she said, "Yes." Not a week went by when Mary called me back to share her success with me. When one of her clients asked to schedule an appointment on Friday, she replied, "Actually, Fridays are the days that I invest in my own professional development so that I can ensure I'm continually Featured Articles – SalesPractice.com

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providing my clients with the greatest value and the most current options available for them. Is it possible for us to find another day and time that would still work for you and fit into your schedule?" Low and behold, the client said, "Of course. How does your Tuesday afternoon look?" Mary's client then added, "It's great to hear that you are so disciplined and committed to your clients. Can you teach me how to do that?" Lesson noted. Either you are going to run your day, or other people and circumstances are going to run you. Honor the commitments you make to others as well as the commitments you make to yourself. Interrupt-Driven: Do you become easily diverted or distracted by situations, new tasks or people rather than maintain the focus on your goals and initial objective? If so, you probably have a long list of tasks that never gets completed, because you feel that you’re always being pulled in a different direction. (And who’s responsible for that?) You may also be an adrenaline junkie and love the rush associated with working on overdrive when trying to do it all. Playing The Victim: "I can't believe I wasn't able to schedule an appointment with Mr. Prospect today! I feel so dejected and frustrated, too frustrated to do anything else productive today." Do you allow one bad experience to snowball and affect the rest of your day? Rather than moving on and forging ahead, this allows you to go into a negative tailspin and destroy the chance of doing anything else productive for the remainder of your day. Another example of playing the victim would sound like, "With the type of manager I have and the lack of support I get, I'm never going to be successful at this job." While you may find that one or two (or more) of these behaviors describe some of your diversionary tactics, this is actually good news! Hey, I never said that you would actually like bringing this truth to the surface. After all, it takes a lot of courage to admit our foibles. However, now that you have a greater understanding and awareness about them you can do something about it. When you notice yourself falling into this trap, you can make the choice to either continue engaging in your diversionary tactic or make a better choice that will generate the results you really want.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Keith Rosen is the executive sales coach that top managers, sales professionals and executives in many of the world's leading companies call first. As a prominent, engaging speaker, Master Coach and well-known author of many books and articles, Keith Featured Articles – SalesPractice.com

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is one of the foremost authorities on assisting people in achieving positive, measurable change in their attitude, in their behavior and in their results. Keith's articles can be found in Selling Power Magazine and has appeared in feature stories in The New York Times, The Washington Times, Inc. Magazine, Sales and Marketing Management's Ultimate Motivation Guide with Stephen Covey, The Wall Street Journal, TheStreet.com and Entrepreneur radio. Keith is also a frequent contributor on the Selling Power Live monthly audio collection and is currently the Sales Coach and Expert Advisor for AllBusiness.com. View Profile | Visit Website


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“Assumptions – The Hidden Sales Killer” by Kelley Robertson View Profile | Visit Website Assumptions can kill a sale. In my sales training workshops, I frequently discuss the importance of not making assumptions about a person before, during, or after the sales process. Participants frequently nod and tell me that they NEVER make assumptions. One person (Doug Maquire, www.MaquireMarketing.com) sent me this story of a situation that occurred in a department store he worked in many years ago. “I was the 'young kid' who had signed on to take the 9 month Management Training course for a department store chain. Sales people were generally assigned specific areas to cover within the store but being a 'management trainee' I had to learn all departments.” One day, a rough looking middle aged fellow entered the store. He was dressed in well-worn workpants, work boots, and a soiled red and black plaid shirt just like you'd expect a lumberjack to wear. No one approached him (I guess he didn't look like a good sales prospect) and he didn't move from the front entrance; he just stood there surveying the store from left to right. I walked up to him and asked if I could help. He said, “I need a pair of wool socks. No nylon, no cotton, just wool socks.” We went to the Menswear Department and both watched as the sales person assigned to that department walked away from us so he wouldn't have to waste his time going through the full selection of hosiery just to find a single pair of wool socks.” I then started asking questions about style, colour, size, price range, etc., to help narrow down exactly what the customer needed. “It don't matter.” he replied, “Just wool socks. I work back in the bush and we only come to town every three weeks. Nylon makes my feet sweat. Cotton's okay but it don't last long. I need socks I can wear at work everyday and that's wool.” So, I checked the content label of every style and colour of sock that we had in stock and eventually found a pair of 100% wool socks. “Good”, he said, and we walked up the checkout counter to ring in the $3.95 pair of wool socks. The man left and I got a


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bit of ribbing from the sales person in the Menswear Department about my 'big sale of the day' and how ‘not to spend my commission all in one place!’” Three weeks later the customer returned. He then walked over to me and said, “I need more wool socks like that last pair”. This time he decided that he'd take 6 pair. We took the socks up to the checkout counter and rang in the six pair of $3.95 socks. The customer paid cash, said thanks, and walked away with his purchase. This time I didn't get quite as much ribbing from the sales person in the Menswear Department. Exactly three weeks later the customer came back. He walked through the front door and made a beeline for me. “I need more of them wool socks”, he said. “The boys at camp want to know where I got them and want some too. How many have you got?” I checked the display area, the stockroom, and our new stock shipment and told him I had 58 pair. He paid cash and bought them all. I never found out exactly how many people he worked with, but every three weeks he'd show up at the store and ask what I had in the way of tee-shirts, long johns, plaid wool shirts, work boots, gloves, caps, toques, coveralls, work jackets, etc., and each time he arrived, he'd walk right up to me for service and we'd both go to the proper department and select what he needed for himself and for the guys he worked with. He always paid cash and always thanked me for my help.” If Doug had made the mistake of following his coworker’s footsteps and made the same assumptions about the customer, he would have lost thousands of dollars in sales. It is easy to make assumptions about our customers and prospects. A person’s appearance, age, gender, nationality, or role within the company, often influences us. I have made this mistake when speaking to companies in the past. Upon learning that they only had a few salespeople, I made the assumptions they would not be willing to pay my standard fee. I later learned that this assumption was completely inaccurate and that they were fully prepared to invest in their teams’ development. As a consumer, I have often noticed that most sales people will approach well-dressed customers before they talk to people who are attired in jeans or casual clothing. Avoid this fatal mistake


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and go into every sales interaction with an open and clear mind. This will definitely have a positive impact on your sales.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Kelley Robertson, President of the Robertson Training Group, works with businesses to help them increase their sales and motivate their employees. He is also the author of “Stop, Ask & Listen – Proven sales techniques to turn browsers into buyers.” Visit his website at www.RobertsonTrainingGroup.com and receive a FREE copy of “100 Ways to Increase Your Sales” by subscribing to his 59Second Tip, a free weekly e-zine. View Profile | Visit Website


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“Selling Value with Persuasion” by Kevin Hogan View Profile | Visit Website Zig Ziglar once said, "They'll buy if your big stack of benefits is bigger than their little stack of money." That was one of the 20 great "aha" moments in my life. I took it as gospel, real life fact. I've never attempted to disprove the notion. I confess that I have dealt with some people who, for varying reasons, were offered the Empire State Building in return for a few hundred dollars but were unable to say, "Yes." Such is their loss. In the old days those moments got under my skin. Today they are like butter on a hot pan. They run right off and they happen less and less as time goes on. Generally speaking, when presented with the Empire State Building (less property taxes) in return for a few hundred dollars the person NEEDS to say, "Yes" and if they don't they are losing a painfully large opportunity. Self-sabotage is a big problem and it infects most of your clients and customers. They will literally turn golden opportunities away and pursue those things which will cause their demise. So...How Can You Overcome Your Client's Self-Sabotaging Behavior? How do you cause your client with a wife and a newborn baby to buy $200,000 of life insurance? Answer. It doesn't matter. He MUST own that policy. My stepdad died when I was 13. That was a million years ago. We were left with over one million dollars of medical bills that needed to be paid (this is 1975 dollars by the way) and we had no significant income ...my Mom worked...and was a Mom...and everything else... and then he died. He had been out of work for some time. We had nothing and now we had worse than nothing. There was no life insurance. None. Zip. Nada. All we had were bills. Lots of 'em. Guess what life was like when you are 13, have four brothers and sisters, no income and better than a million dollars of bills... That's right. You guessed it....and if I sold life insurance I'd tell all the stories about Thanksgiving when the Boy Scouts brought turkey and


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used clothes. Plaid pants that had been out of style for years. We wore them. It's what there was. Humiliating and yet we so appreciated it. There weren't other options. And there are more stories but all that for another day. You don't want your kids growing up in that environment and you can prevent it with $200 per YEAR. I don't care how much you earn or don't earn you can secure your family for a few years in case of your death. You CAUSE your future client to buy $250,000 of term insurance because he MUST. This isn't a choice. It is a must. It's like breathing. It's like drinking water. No exceptions you simply do it. You can't pressure a person too much to drink water and breathe oxygen. The VALUE of the security is far greater than the pittance it costs. How Do You Paint the Picture? You paint the picture vividly and clearly. You can cause your kids to have at least a secure childhood or you can be responsible for some pretty terrible things. Few people think like this. It's your job to not just show the value but demand that people FEEL the value. How else can you show value? Why work with you? Why be YOUR customer instead of someone else who sells the same thing. Like insurance, like mutual funds, like automobiles, houses, like everything else that is replicable? You offer additional value...real value. Two of the brightest and most valuable real estate agents on the planet are Jim Bailey here in Minnesota and Gary Kent in San Diego. These two guys both have two of the most incredible E-zines related to real estate, buying a house, selling a house, moving, financing options, you name it. Making the right or wrong decision in ANY of these areas can cost you tens of thousands of dollars. I am not in the market and I read them both. Every issue. I KNOW what I will do when I go to sell and buy a house...and I know WHO will represent me. They don't need to tell me they sell real estate...I'm smart enough to figure that out. Anyone can put out a piece of propaganda that advertises their services. Big deal. I want to do business with the person who let's me figure that out but gives ME a REASON and CAUSE to trust them ahead of time so they don't have to sell me later. That's Jim and Gary. Establishing value and giving cause to trust you long before you ASK THEM to TRUST you is meeting my value of psychological and financial security.


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Do What No One Else is Doing What if you have a lawn service? How can you create value? The lawn guy can't have an Ezine right? Really? Why not? Instead of just knocking on my door and asking me if I want to buy your service, "no," ask me if i would like to receive monthly tips on lawn and garden care absolutely free with a promise of no call ever. All it takes is your email address. No name, no phone, no nothing. That's it. Knock on 2000 doors, get 1000 email addresses then six months later you ask the person if they like the ezine and if they would like help with their lawn and garden. Who does this? No one. I don't have a green thumb, I have a red thumb from the blood drawn trying to have a green thumb. If someone offered to give me free tips on everything I need to know to have the most beautiful yard in the neighborhood.... Now, this isn't an advertisement for having an Ezine. What about someone who doesn't provide a service? Say that you have a UPS Store. My buddy Steve in Eagan, MN has a UPS Store. My six year old son LOVES to go to the UPS Store EVERYDAY. Retail is a tough business because it is so competitive. Every inch of space has to be profitable... Why does my son love for me to take him to the UPS Store? Because Steve has a fishbowl of Tootsie Rolls that he buys at the grocery store for one purpose. For his customers...yes...but mostly for my son. He spends about $10 per month on Tootsie Rolls and I've been his customer since 1992.... when the Tootsie Rolls were for my daughter (and anyone else who wanted a bite!) Value. But it just wasn't a piece of candy. When we walk in the door, Steve says, "Hey man, (talking to my son) how are you today?"


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"Great! Can I have a toosie roll please?" (Everyone in store now has attention on child and grown man...and no one frets over the seconds being "wasted" in their day....) "You bet you can. Did you have a good day at school?" (He continues to wait on his customer. Winks his eye at the customer. Tells the customer how great this kid is...) When they're done chatting, every one of Steve's customers knows one thing. Steve not only has a great store but he is a great PERSON. That means people want to do business with him. I went in last week, asked how business was. He was exhausted. Sweating. (And it's September in Minnesota) "Kevin, I can't handle any more business." Value. How Do You Tip the Scales? When everything is equal it only takes something small to tip the scales. What about when everything is NOT equal. What about when apples are compared to the oranges. Then what do you do? You can be hired for a service as a speaker!, a sales rep, a therapist, a doctor, an expert about...body language.... I walked into the Fox studio last week with a heavy bag. I was ready to evaluate the Presidential debate for Fox. The News Anchor looked at my bag, and said, "moving in?" "Only if you guys treat me right." We sat. Talked and then watched Kerry and Bush. Then we did our spot on the News. I was on for four minutes. Four minutes on Fox is about $50,000 for a Prime Time local series of spots. Immediately after the spot was over, I told Jeff I had to go. "Oh, you should stay, don't bolt." He wanted to have Coffee afterward. I had kids at home. I thanked him and simply asked him to check his desk before he headed home for the night. In 30 seconds he was back Featured Articles – SalesPractice.com

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on camera. I was looking around at the Security Guard who was nice enough to let me keep the Security Necklace for my son, the Producer who was VERY kind... I looked for everyone who was nice enough to smile as I walked by. I sat at Jeff's desk and signed a bunch of my books...and then personalized them. Who does that? Yep. No one. Is it a TOOL or technique? No. It is a way of life. Creating value is a way of life. It is how you live your life whether you are working or walking. When you constantly are trying to figure out how to make other people's days or lives better...your day and your life... is always on someone else's mind as well. That's how you create value and it's how you create a community of value.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Kevin Hogan holds a doctorate in psychology and is the author of eleven books (and counting...). He is body language expert and unconscious influence expert to the BBC, the New York Post and dozens of popular magazines like InTouch, First for Women, Success!, and Cosmopolitan. He has become the go-to resource for analyzing key White House figures. Hogan has taught Persuasion and Influence at the University of St. Thomas Management Center and is a frequent media guest. Articles by and about him have appeared in Success!, Redbook, Office Pro, Selling Power, Cosmopolitan, Maxim, Playboy and numerous other publications. He was recently featured in a half dozen magazines (including wProst) in Poland after teaching persuasion and influence skills to that country's 350 leading sales managers. View Profile | Visit Website


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“What you can learn from The Movie Business” by Kim Duke View Profile | Visit Website Maybe everything you need to know you can learn from the movies. A friend of mine is a screenwriter in Los Angeles. Over a glass of wine, we were discussing his business and the nature of the beast in Hollywood. He’s a boy from Winnipeg who gave up his much-loved Honda, his life savings, and his broadcasting career to move to Los Angeles to attend the American Film Institute. Not an easy feat in your mid-30s. After 8 years of hard work he is now becoming the new discovery of LA. He said the most difficult thing to adjust to was all the talking. Collin slouches into his chair. "Everyone lies in this business. It's all big Cheshire cat smiles – but essentially people have the 'Enough about you – more about me' mentality." After our conversation I thought about his last statement. Are You On A Blind Date With Your Customer? We tend to love what we do. So we get all excited about it and then proceed to tell everything about ourselves to the potential customer. It just reminds me of a really bad date! A one-sided conversation becomes tired pretty quickly. Customers feel like they are on a bad blind date with you if there isn’t a connection to what they need. Minus the cynicism, our clients are also thinking like the Hollywood set, "ENOUGH ABOUT YOU blabbing about all the wonderful things about your company, your product, your requirements. MORE ABOUT ME – and what I need to survive and thrive!" The Helium Test Are you talking your face off when you are speaking with your client? When they ask you on the phone what you have to offer – do they hear a massive intake of air and then you giving your best "I just sucked in helium and can talk really fast" act? If so – you aren’t making a connection with your customer. You sound like everyone else, you act like everyone else and you aren’t positioning yourself as someone who can help. Because at the end of the day –what you really do is HELP PEOPLE. The only way this is accomplished is by discovering what your customer needs and


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researching other areas of need – areas your customer may not even have thought of yet! Questions Are The Answer! Sounds like a paradox doesn’t it? In order to help your customer you first find out what they need. Or THINK they need. Carrie Fisher, the actress who played Princess Leah in Star Wars said “Instant gratification doesn’t come fast enough. “ Now for a girl with cinnamon buns attached to the side of her head this is a pretty profound statement. Your customers are demanding instant gratification. They want their needs met. In most cases, it just isn’t happening. The first thing out of your mouth should be "May I ask you a few questions?" Remember W5? Who, What, When, Where, Why and How are the foundation of selling. Customers buy when they feel an emotion NOT when they’ve had information dumped on them. How do you do this? By asking questions! Our customers become engaged when they feel curiosity….NOT boredom. Our customer contact should be handled with this premise – Create Curiosity With Questions. Would the Academy Want You? Create your own Academy award winning sales success by talking less and listening more. As Collin says, the best agents ask a multitude of relevant questions. Then they listen to the answers and make it happen. Are you acting like a star with your clients or are you being an agent? Your success lies in the answer.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Kim Duke is The Sales Diva! She's an unconventional, sassy and savvy sales expert that shows women small biz owners and entrepreneurs sizzling sales tips on how to increase sales in a fun, easy, stress-free way! Her extensive sales background was based in the media -15 years working with two of Canada 's largest television networks, CTV and CBC Television in sales and management. She's sold millions and didn't even break a nail! She is a national award winning salesperson - and was the second youngest sales manager in Canada for CBC Television, Canada's oldest television network. From TV Executive to Entrepreneur! Kim launched her own Featured Articles – SalesPractice.com

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company The Sales Divas in 2001 and has never looked back. Now as a successful entrepreneur - she provides sales training for companies of all sizes across Canada and internationally. She's worked with the WNBA and NBA! She specializes in teaching women entrepreneurs and business owners how to sell and to become WILDLY SUCCESSFUL at selling (all without turning into a "cheesy, smooth talking" sales person.) She has had television appearances on the Life Network, CTV, Global, Access and Shaw TV. View Profile | Visit Website


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“Defining Consultative Selling” by Linda Richardson View Profile | Visit Website Today Consultative Selling is almost a household word. It is an approach to selling in which customer needs are used as the basis for the sales dialogue. When the word Consultative was applied to sales in the 1970’s, it was revolutionary. It marked a major transition from the salesperson as the purveyor of information and the customer as the recipient to a much more collaborative interaction — one in which the customer’s needs, not the product — was the focal point of the sale. By the early 80’s, the term Consultative Selling began to be misunderstood as a long, arduous sales process that focused on needs at the expense of closing business. In fact, effective Consultative Selling, because needs are clear and recommendations, therefore, are more likely to be on target, actually accelerates the sales cycle. To really understand Consultative Selling vs. the approaches to sales that preceded it, it is helpful to think about Steinberg’s poster of the U.S. In his map, New York occupies the majority of the country (click here to see Steinberg’s U.S. Map). The two most abused, misused, and overused words in selling are the words consultative and solution. It is interesting that these two words hold this distinction because without being consultative, the so-called solution is usually little more than a standard product pitch. The transition from product-focused selling to need-focused selling was the direct result of market changes. Increased competition and customers’ greater access to information and sophistication began the shift of power in a sales call from salesperson to buyer. There are three primary differentiators that mark a Consultative Salesperson: They ask more questions. They provide customized vs. generic solutions. Their calls are more interactive. Consultative Selling is all about the dialogue between the salesperson and the customer. The word dialogue comes from the Greek and means “to learn.” In Consultative Selling, the salesperson learns about customer needs before talking product. Product knowledge is


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transformed into a tailored solution when the solution is delivered and positioned based on the customer’s needs and language. With Consultative Selling, the customer’s needs come first. Needs are identified through a combination of preparation and effective probing and drilling-down into customer answers. Consultative Selling took the hard edge from product selling and replaced it with the strong but flexible edge that is custom fit to the customer’s needs.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Linda Richardson is the Founder and Chairman of Richardson, a global sales training business. As a recognized leader in the industry, she has won the coveted Stevie Award for Lifetime Achievement in Sales Excellence for 2006 and in 2007 she was identified by Training Industry, Inc. as one of the “Top 20 Most Influential Training Professionals.” View Profile | Visit Website


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“How To Seal The Deal In Seven Seconds” by Lydia Ramsey View Profile | Visit Website Can you close a sale in just seven seconds? You can do it even faster if you make a great first impression. Seven seconds is the average length of time you have to make a first impression. If your first impression is not good you won' t get another chance with that potential client. But if you make a great first impression you can bet that the client is more likely to take you and your company seriously. Whether your initial meeting is face-to-face, over the phone or via the Internet, you do not have time to waste. It pays for you to understand how people make their first judgment and what you can do to be in control of the results. 1. Learn What People Use To Form Their First Opinion. When you meet someone face-to-face, 93% of how you are judged is based on non-verbal data - your appearance and your body language. Only 7% is influenced by the words that you speak. Whoever said that you can't judge a book by its cover failed to note that people do. When your initial encounter is over the phone, 70% of how you are perceived is based on your tone of voice and 30% on your words. Clearly, it's not what you say - it's the way that you say it. 2. Choose Your First Twelve Words Carefully. Although research shows that your words make up a mere 7% of what people think of you in a one-on-one encounter, don't leave them to chance. Express some form of thank you when you meet the client. Perhaps, it is "Thank you for taking your time to see me today" or "Thank you for joining me for lunch." Clients appreciate you when you appreciate them. 3. Use The Other Person's Name Immediately. There is no sweeter sound than that of our own name. When you use the client 's name in conversation within your first twelve words and the first seven seconds, you are sending a message that you value that person and are focused on him. Nothing gets other people's attention as effectively as calling them by name.


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4. Pay Attention To Your Hair. Your clients will. In fact, they will notice your hair and face first. Putting off that much-needed haircut or color job may cost you the deal. Very few people want to do business with someone who is unkempt or whose hairstyle does not look professional. Don't let a bad hair day cost you the connection. 5. Keep Your Shoes In Mint Condition. People will look from your face to your feet. If your shoes aren't well maintained, the client will question whether you pay attention to other details. Shoes should be polished as well as appropriate for the business environment. They may be the last thing you put on before you walk out the door, but they are often the first thing your client notices. 6. Walk Fast. Studies show that people who walk 10-20% faster than others are viewed as important and energetic - just the kind of person your clients want to do business with. Pick up the pace and walk with purpose if you want to impress. You never know who may be watching. 7. Fine Tune Your Handshake. The first move you make when meeting your prospective client is to put out your hand. There isn't a businessperson anywhere who can't tell you that the good business handshake should be a firm one. Yet time and again people offer a limp hand to the client. You'll be assured of giving an impressive grip and getting off to a good start if you position your hand to make complete contact with the other person's hand. Once you've connected, close your thumb over the back of the other person's hand and give a slight squeeze. You'll have the beginning of a good business relationship. 8. Make Introductions With Style. It does matter whose name you say first and what words you use when making introductions in business. Because business etiquette is based on rank and hierarchy, you want to honor the senior or highest ranking person by saying his name first. When the client is present, he is always the most important person. Say the client's name first and introduce other people to the client. The correct words to use are "I'd like to introduce..." or "I'd like to introduce to you..." followed by the name of the other person. Featured Articles – SalesPractice.com

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9. Never Leave The Office Without Your Business Cards. Your business cards and how you handle them contribute to your total image. Have a good supply of them with you at all times since you never know when and where you will encounter a potential client. How unimpressive is it to ask for a person's card and have them say, " Oh, I'm sorry. I think I just gave my last one away." You get the feeling that this person has already met everyone he wants to know. Keep your cards in a card case or holder where they are protected from wear and tear. That way you will be able to find them without a lot of fumbling around, and they will always be in pristine condition. 10. Match Your Body Language To Your Verbal Message. A smile or pleasant expression tells your clients that you are glad to be with them. Eye contact says you are paying attention and are interested in what is being said. Leaning in toward the client makes you appear engaged and involved in the conversation. Use as many signals as you can to look interested and interesting. In the business environment, you plan your every move with potential clients. You arrange for the appointment, you prepare for the meeting, you rehearse for the presentation, but in spite of your best efforts, potential clients pop up in the most unexpected places and at the most bizarre times. For that reason, leave nothing to chance. Every time you walk out of your office, be ready to make a powerful first impression.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Lydia Ramsey is a business etiquette expert, professional speaker, corporate trainer and author of MANNERS THAT SELL - ADDING THE POLISH THAT BUILDS PROFITS. She has been quoted or featured in The New York Times, Investors' Business Daily, Entrepreneur, Inc., Real Simple and Woman's Day. For more information about her programs, products and services, e-mail her at [email protected] or visit her web site http://mannersthatsell.com View Profile | Visit Website


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“7 Steps to Immediately Increase Your Sales By 20% or More” by Mark Tewart View Profile | Visit Website There are 7 steps to make immediate change. These steps can be used to quickly increase sales by a more significant amount than you have ever experienced. Step #1 – Change the environment The military uses boot camp. Baseball has spring training, Football has training camp. The easiest way to bring about rapid change is to change environment. When you change environment, you change behavior. People tend to hold onto to limiting beliefs and behaviors as long as they stay in their normal environment. Regular training sessions should be done outside of the dealership environment. It is easier to create a sense of team if you are discussing goals, ideas and get input if you are outside of your normal environment. It’s also important to eliminate distractions to supercharge the learning that takes place in the new environment. No cell phones, no interruptions. Step #2 – Change appearances First appearances greatly influence the decision making process of people. Change the appearance of your dealership and your people and it can make a huge difference. Walk across the street from your dealership and look back. Ask yourself, what do your customers see? Drive by your dealership at different angles of view and ask the same question. Small changes can make give your customers much greater curb appeal and catch the attention of others. When your customers pull into your dealership, what do they see? Your vehicles should create a sensation of WOW for your customers. ? Make your dealership clean, visually appealing and easy to navigate. Confusion breeds indecision. What do your employees look like? People buy form people they feel most comfortable with in appearance, beliefs and values. As a rule of thumb, your salespeople should be dressed slightly above your customers. This will allow your customers to be comfortable and respect your employees at the same time. Step #3 – Get incremental buy-in from your customers. Featured Articles – SalesPractice.com

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To sell you must get out of your own way. Often, salespeople are the biggest hindrance in creating a sale. You must first create trust with your customers. To create trust, you must have a mindset of TLC – Think Like a Customer. You must release the mentality of a salesperson to slow the process and bring incremental buy-in from your customer. It is not a mistake that the symbol for questions is shaped like a hook. The right questions asked correctly are the hooks that make the sale come together. Questions should be asked in incremental order so as not to scare the customer. Sequential questioning will establish a fluid process of discovery for the customer. This will create rapport and establish feelings of reciprocation and obligation from the customer. Most salespeople violate the customers trust by asking financial data questions too quickly. This also interrupts the natural pace of communications and creates apprehension in the customer. Remember that selling is like tuning in a radio dial t the right frequency. You must take your time. Step #4 - Facts tell, stories sell. People need to combine verbal, visual and emotional evidence. All this can be accomplished with similar situation stories. People don’t buy vehicles, they buy emotional solutions to problems that they can see in their minds eye and feel in their hearts. Features are like the scenes of the movie. Benefits are the underlining story line and stories are the emotions that tie everything together. Personalize everything you do with true and relatable stories and visualizations. Step #5 – Be unforgettable – What is your WOW factor? Have an SDP – Specific Defining Proposition. You must make your claim of why you, your dealership and your product is the best for the customer. Don’t be shy about differentiating from your competitors. Make the largest truthful claims possible. Create the brand of your dealership. What makes you; your employees and your dealership stand out and become remarkable. What will your customers not forget about their experience with your people, process, product or market position? Step #6 – When someone else toots your horn it will be heard twice as far and twice as long. Customer testimonials and evidence of trust are a massive sales builder and marketing tool. Utilize the people who like and trust you to convince others. Letters, videos, audio testimonials, pictures and direct testimonials create the strongest form of social acceptance available. Step #7 - Dance with the one you came with. Featured Articles – SalesPractice.com

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Your best source of success for now and the future are the customers who like you, trust you and have done business with you. Before you spend one dollar on advertising for new customers, determine your process and actions in maintaining your current customers and how they can provide you more customers. These seven steps are universal and undeniable. If followed they will provide you with increased sales and riches.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Mark is a well known keynote speaker and author with regularly featured articles in Automotive Dealer Magazine, Automotive Training Monthly Magazine and was a contributing author to a book to be released in 1998 titled GenderSell. Mark has been featured in several ASTN programs such as Start Smart: The Beginners Guide To Selling Automobile, Perspective and Incredible Customer Service. View Profile | Visit Website


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“Why Changing Your Tagline May Be a Mistake” by Michael Antman View Profile | Visit Website More so than most other aspects of marketing communications, advertising is subject to fads and fashions. From typography to photography, almost every element of almost every print and television ad you see is a product of its era in the same manner that the clothes and automobiles of the time were. Don't think so? Take a look at an advertising annual from, say, 1967. Virtually without exception, the design elements of almost every ad virtually scream "1967" – the makeup on the models, the hairstyles, the vibrant colors, the co-opting of rock-concert poster and "psychedelic" design motifs. In other words, although advertising people like to talk about "differentiation" and "unique selling propositions," a circa-1967 print ad for a Plymouth is almost certain to resemble one of its competitors' ads more closely than it will a 1987 ad for a Plymouth – and not just because the look of the car itself has changed. A Tagline Is Forever Even copywriting style changes dramatically with the times. Compare the earnest, wordy and enthusiastic ads of the 50s and 60s with the characteristic ad of the 80s and 90s, in which the headline served as the set-up for a joke, and the image and/or brief, pun-laden copy served as the punchline. There's one partial exception to advertising's lockstep adherence to the zeitgeist, and that's the tagline, nee "slogan." From "You're in Good Hands With Allstate" to "A Diamond Is Forever," some of the most effective and memorable taglines of 2004 were just as effective and memorable in 1994, or even 1964. This is exactly as it should be. A company that uses the same tagline (or close variants) for many decades is sending a message to the world that, whatever innovations and new products it may choose to introduce, there is one thing that never changes: Its commitment to quality and service. A 2004 ad that looks like an ad from 1985 represents a serious branding problem; a 2004 ad that bears the same tagline as its counterpart from 1984 represents solidity, strength and confidence.


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The Tagline Exception is only a partial one, however. Some companies change taglines for very good reasons – because their underlying strategy has changed substantially. But others change their taglines because, well, because everyone else is doing it. Witness the recent vogue for "question" taglines – "Where Do You Want to Go?" and "What's In Your Wallet?" and "Gatordade. Is It In You?" and "Do You Yahoo?" and "What Is Mlife?" (by the way, the answer to that last question seems to have been another question, namely, "who cares?") Fortunately, this "questionable" fad is likely to fade away as quickly as it appeared on the scene. Imagine the advertising landscape if the question tagline had been de rigeur in years past: "Is That a Tiger In Your Tank?" "Amtrak: Where Do You Get Off?" "Are Your Peas From the Valley of the Jolly (Ho, Ho, Ho) Green Giant?" Even Allstate has gotten into the interrogative act, with their recent commercials that ask, "Are You in Good Hands?" But this is an intelligent way of following a fad – the question is not only relevant, it is a direct variant of their famous tagline, which they continue to use in other contexts. Change and Die Whatever the reason, it is clear that companies these days are changing their taglines entirely too often. A recent, well-publicized survey of consumers showed that the vast majority were unable to identify the companies behind many taglines, even after millions or even hundreds of millions of marketing dollars had been expended to establish them. In most cases, this is because companies, driven by quarterly profit pressures and constant turnover in their marketing staffs, keep on changing their slogans when they don't immediately take off, or when they made a minor (i.e., invisible to the consumer) adjustment to their product line or business strategy. What percentage of consumers would have identified "Like a Good Neighbor" with State Farm six months after the slogan was introduced? But State Farm stuck with it – had the courage of its convictions, in other words – and now they possess one of the most venerable and effective taglines of all time. Incidentally, the survey demonstrated that this phenomenon works, or rather doesn't work, the other way, too. When asked to identify the current tagline of the fading American retail icon Sears, only 4 percent could do so. The taglines for Buick and Miller Beer, two other brands with their share of troubles, were both identified correctly by only 1


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percent of respondents. And Plymouth? Zero percent. Of course, Plymouth doesn't actually exist any more. Must be because they kept on changing their tagline.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Michael Antman is a marketing and marketing communications consultant with nearly 30 years of experience. He specializes in the creation of branding strategies and marketing communications programs for companies with complex products and services selling to sophisticated target audiences. Mr. Antman creates and directs quantitative and qualitative research programs; uses this research to develop strategic and tactical branding and positioning statements; and creates programs across the entire spectrum of marketing communications, including print, television, radio and Internet advertising; media relations programs; collateral; agency recruitment and management; sales support materials; film and video productions; corporate, product and service naming consulting; and direct mail programs. View Profile | Visit Website


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“Four Common Words That Will Ruin Your Sale” by Paul Johnson View Profile | Visit Website Good news! When you say po-ta-toe, and I say po-tah-toe, we both know we mean exactly the same thing. The trouble comes when a single word means different things to different people. Four words commonly used in marketing today can have a devastating effect on your sales results. We use these words to describe our offerings and assume the prospective buyer knows exactly what we mean. However, definitions vary widely and the end result of that type of miscommunication is disastrous. These words can lead to disappointed buyers and reversed sales. They cause unmet expectations on the part of the buyer and result in poor referrals. Using any of these four words is a sure way to generate negative references for what you sell. Let's take a moment to explore these four words and the impact of their use when selling. The first word to avoid is "Value." All customers want good value, and all customer-oriented companies want to provide a good value. Yet, the seller should never claim to provide good value; that is entirely up to the customer. A good value is a transaction that provides us with more than we expect, more than we believe we paid for or bargained. The key word here is "Expect." A transaction either is or isn't a good value based on how well expectations are met. Unfortunately, expectations change almost daily. For example, if I shop for a television set and choose a model that happens to comes with a one-year warranty instead of the usual 90 days, I'm pleasantly surprised. I feel as though I'm receiving good value for my investment. When I go to buy another television set, my expectation may be the inclusion of a one-year warranty. The manufacturer's idea of value may be a 90-day warranty and a lower price. The result: I'm disappointed if I don't get the one-year warranty, even if the price is lower. The solution is to break a generic value statement into something more specific and meaningful to the targeted buyer. Where does the value come from? As a seller, you can point out where the value might come from so your buyer cannot overlook it. However, it doesn't have to be accepted by the buyer. For example, perceived value may result


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from a longer warranty, a lower price, or more standard features. It might come from lower cost of ownership due to extended reliability, or from lower maintenance costs. But I can't tell you that I am providing value. I can only tell you what I am providing, and let you decide if there's value for you. The second common sale killer is the word "Quality." Many of us have a hard time defining quality, thinking "we'll know it when we see it." According to Philip Crosby, author of Quality is Free, quality is not a matter of opinion. Quality means conformance to requirements, and is defined by those characteristics that allow your purchase to do what you expect it to do. For example, consider which is the higher quality automobile, Mercedes-Benz or Chevrolet? That all depends on the characteristics needed for quality. If I use my vehicle over an extended range, such as throughout the US and Canada, and up-time is important to me because I depend on my vehicle to make a living, the Chevrolet may be the higher quality choice. Wherever I travel, I am never far from a Chevrolet dealer and the parts needed to fix my car. Chevrolet has over 15 times as many service locations as Mercedes-Benz in North America, and the parts distribution network to support them. It will almost always take longer to get the Mercedes back on the road. If it's important to me that my car isn't tied up in the shop regardless of where I go, the Chevrolet is the higher quality product. The solution is to describe the quality of your offering in terms of the fundamental characteristics that allow you to deliver that quality. For a product, characteristics might include the purity of the materials used, the precision with which they're built or assembled, or the functions it can perform. For a service, quality may relate to speed of service delivery, a low error rate, or depth of services available. Note that all of these are measurable and definable. By focusing on the characteristics of quality, quality changes from a nebulous "I'll know it when I see it" into a set of clearly definable and measurable requirements. Always remember that your definition of quality is not the same as the next person's, even though we all think we know what it means. Third, avoid the word "Service." It's simply overused. Too bad, really, because everybody does want good service. It's just that, like quality, everybody has a different definition of what good service is. Some people associate good service with the sound of a human voice. Others actually want resolution of the problem. In fact, there are so many different ways to define good customer service that the topic has spawned an entire industry of consultants and professional speakers to address the topic. If you haven't heard enough good and bad customer Featured Articles – SalesPractice.com

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service stories already, give me a call and I'll be happy to share a few of my own. Instead of talking about good service, just shut up and do it. Put some performance standards in place for your own organization, and then deliver to those standards. Let your customers tell your prospects how you deliver service. Jeff Multz at Emerging Market Technologies of Atlanta, Georgia has already figured this out. He read Ken Blanchard's book, Raving Fans and decided to create his own. Jeff insists that his staff (including him) return all calls and acknowledge all e-mails within an hour. Not only do they have their service benchmarks on paper, but they use the software they sell to help them deliver it, as well as report on it. Their computer tells them if they are living up to the performance standards they've set for themselves. When talking to prospects about your offering, you won't have to mention a word about service. Instead, show them the testimonial letters you've collected from your happy customers. Encourage them to talk to your existing customer base. Show them the statistics from your customer satisfaction surveys that talk about responsiveness and service levels. Your prospects will get the message. The last, and ugliest, word to avoid is "Price." Price doesn't usually come by itself. It's usually accompanied by another word, "low." As soon as you start talking about price, your prospects will be happy to compare it. Therefore, avoid making any claims regarding price in your advertising or other initial messages to your prospects. You can never consistently win at the low price game anyway. To paraphrase Don Peppers of Peppers and Rogers Consulting Group, "if you're competing on price, you always have to underbid your stupidest competitor." Price becomes a distraction in your customer's buying process. They forget about how important their purchase is in solving their problem, and instead become concerned with comparing "apples with apples." They quickly discount all the unique and significant attributes that make your offering a better solution. This concern over price reduces your offering to commodity status. Of course, sooner or later everyone is going to need to know "How much?" and your offering needs to be priced in a range that is comparable with your competition. Just make sure the solution you're offering is worth much more to the buyer than the price you'll ask for it. If your prospect jumps the gun and asks "How much?" before you've had a chance to help them establish value, explain with pride, "that's the best part. I'll get to that in just a moment." While you should be proud of your price, leading with it only makes your job more difficult. Featured Articles – SalesPractice.com

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Value, Quality, Service, and Price will get you in trouble because they mean different things to different people at different times. While each concept is important, you must take care to explain and define each of these words if you choose to use them. Before you ever talk about value, learn the buyer's expectations. Before you mention quality, determine the buyer's requirements. Don't talk about service. Let others do it for you. And price? If you're really providing a worthwhile solution, price is the best part. Save it for last.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Paul Johnson of Panache and Systems LLC consults and speaks on business strategy for systematically boosting sales performance using Shortcuts to Yes™. Check out more salesforce development tips at http://panache-yes.com/tips.html. View Profile | Visit Website


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“Creating Client Trust” by Paul McCord View Profile | Visit Website One of the current buzz phrases in sales and marketing is “exceeding the client’s expectations.” This is a laudable goal, but one that is seldom met. And then to top it off, it isn’t enough. If you manage to exceed your client’s expectations, you still have only succeeded in meeting half of your obligation to the client. Clients have more than simply the expectations during the sale, they also have product or service priorities. In order to have consummated a quality sale, you must have met both the client’s expectations of the sale and their product or service priorities. Many salespeople and sales managers think these are one and the same. They are not. Let’s break these down into two distinct concepts. Expectations: Every client has certain expectations about the sale. A client may expect a number of things to happen during the course of the sale: they may expect to be kept fully informed; they may expect any problems or issues during the course of the sale to be eliminated quickly; they may expect certain things to happen at certain times, such as delivery or billing; they may expect certain members of their team to consulted about aspects of the sale or installation; they may expect notification and coordination prior to delivery; or any number of other expectations. All of these expectations are related to the sales process. Different customers will have different expectations during the sale. For example, one customer may expect to be kept fully informed of any issues during the process, but other than that doesn’t want to be bothered with updates. On the other hand, another customer may expect to be updated on a regular basis, and a third customer may want what you consider to be overkill and want to be kept informed almost daily. Three different customers--three different expectations. Moreover, of course, each customer will probably have several expectations, not just one. Product or Service Priorities: In addition to their sale expectations, clients also have product or service priorities—those things they fully expect your product or service to deliver. As with expectations during the sale, each customer will have his or her own product and service


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priorities. An example would be a client purchasing new delivery vehicles. One client’s top priority may be fuel efficiency; another may be visual impression (image), while a third may be loading capacity. Depending upon the product or service, the customer may have only a few or many priorities. Any sale that does not meet both the client’s expectations during the sale and their product/service priorities is a less than successful sale. Moreover, the most immediate recipient of the client’s displeasure and the one who pays proportionately the biggest cost is the salesperson and his or her reputation. In order to be able to expect referrals, develop a reputation of excellence, and too be viewed by customers and clients as an expert source, you must make it your top priority to meet, and hopefully exceed, both your client’s expectations and priorities. Part of a referralbased business model is the agreement with the client that if you meet certain goals, you will get referrals. This is an agreed upon commitment between you and your client. If you perform, you get the referrals you’ve worked for. Fail and you haven’t earned them. How, then, can you make sure that you are fully aware of the client’s expectations and priorities? You must sit down with each and every client and discuss in detail exactly what his or her expectations during the sale are and exactly what their product/service priorities are. There isn’t any other way of making sure that you are both on the same page. Unfortunately, most salespeople and their companies assume they know what the client’s expectations are. Ask most salespeople what their client’s expect and they’ll quickly rattle off a list: friendly service, no problems during the sale, on-time delivery, no add-on charges, and the like. This list, however, is nothing more than what they believe should be the expectations of there clients. Furthermore, nothing has been said about the product/service priorities of the client. Salespeople and their companies tend to view the sale as two separate and distinct transactions—the product and/or service the customer has purchased or contracted for and the sales event itself. In reality, in the client’s mind, these are one and the same. If either the sale, which is the actual process of selling and delivering the product or service, or the product/service does not measure up to the client’s wants, needs and expectations, the salesperson and their company have failed. Salespeople must redefine their sale to include both aspects of the client’s purchase. Although in many cases the salesperson has little or Featured Articles – SalesPractice.com

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no control over how the product or service performs, the customer, based on the product/service performance, will judge the salesperson just as much as they will judge the company. In addition, the customer will also judge them based on how well or poorly the sales process goes. In other words, your client will hold you responsible for your performance, your company’s performance, and the product/service performance. Consequently, you must know exactly what your client expects during the sales process and what his or her priorities are of the product or service you sell. You must then make sure that you meet both their expectations of the sale and that the product or service you have sold them meets their particular priorities. A surprisingly large number of salespeople rush through the presentation and “sale” of the product or service without gaining a complete understanding of exactly what the customer’s needs and desires for the product or service are. They focus so strongly on the sale, they fail to analyze the product or service in terms of the client’s priorities. Most often, they fail to fully discover what their client’s priorities are, or, more often, they believe “close” is close enough. Recognizing the importance of meeting both the client’s sales expectations and their product/service priorities puts a huge burden on the salesperson, though not a burden that was not already present. Most of us operate blissfully unaware that we are being judged based on both how we perform and how our product or service performs. We tend to think of ourselves as being responsible for how we deal with the client—this is, that we keep the promises we personally make to the client, not that we are personally responsible for how well or poorly our product or service meets the client’s needs. We tend to think of the product or service as something that is separate from ourselves and is between the customer and our company. In order to be able to know exactly what your client’s expectations are during the sale and their priorities for the product or service, you must have a frank and open discussion with the client. This discussion is not one to be rushed through. The client needs to know that this is the defining discussion of the whole sales process. You must ask in nouncertain terms exactly what their expectations of the sale are and exactly what their priorities for the product or service are. By all means take notes and then, after the client has had the opportunity to define for you their expectations and priorities, repeat them to your client in exactly the way you understand them. If, for instance, your client states that the delivery date is most important during the sale, with an expectation to be kept fully informed and that he be notified of any issues that arise immediately, and that his primary priority for the Featured Articles – SalesPractice.com

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product is that the vehicles be capable of carrying X load, at X fuel economy, and at X price, you need to recite to him that your understanding is that his primary expectation is that the vehicles must be delivered on or before the agreed upon date, that you communicate with him either by phone or e-mail at least weekly, and that if any issues arise with the purchase you will communicate those to him with X number of hours after you discover the issue; furthermore, you understand that the vehicles upon delivery must be capable of hauling X, that they must get X miles per gallon, and that the agreed upon price should not change in any manner. If you know you cannot meet these sales expectations or that your product cannot meet the stated priorities, you must find a solution at this point or you will end the sale with a less than satisfied customer. Once you understand and agree to the client’s expectations and priorities, get his verbal agreement to your understanding of each and very statement. If you have misinterpreted anything or if the client rearranges his expectations or priorities, go over them again. Once you have his full agreement on each expectation and priority, ask again for his commitment to provide quality referrals upon completion of the sale. A simple statement such as, “(client’s name), we’re in agreement that if I meet these three sales expectations and the product/service meets your priorities, you will provide me with 5 quality referrals as we had defined them previously, correct?” Even though at this point you have discussed with your client their expectations and priorities, and have a verbal agreement as to what they are and that you will have earned the referrals if you meet them, don’t stop there. Take one final step and once back at your office, send the client a brief e-mail listing his sales expectations and his product/service priorities. Do not put them in a format that appears to be documentation. Simply send an email that reads something like “Don, thank you taking the time to go over your expectations and priorities with me this afternoon. Since every client is different and each has different wants and needs, it really helps me meet your wants and needs if I know exactly what your expectations and priorities are. My understanding is that you (then list his sales expectations and then his product/service priorities again, just as you did when you were with him). If, upon further reflection, these aren’t quite right, please let me know.” Once you have clearly defined what your client expects and what his priorities are, you can take dead aim at meeting his wants and needs precisely, without any doubt as to which activities and issues you must pay particular attention to in order to have fully met, and hopefully, “exceeded your client’s expectations.” Featured Articles – SalesPractice.com

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Author, speaker, trainer, consultant, and one of the country’s leading authorities on prospecting, referral generation, and personal marketing, Paul McCord has had a distinguished career in teaching, sales, sales training, and sales management. A magna cum laude graduate of Texas A&M University, Commerce, with graduate studies at Texas Christian University in Ft. Worth, Paul began his career teaching literature at his alma mater. Though he enjoyed the challenge of teaching, his competitive nature lead him to the business world where he could more fully utilize his selling and training talents. View Profile | Visit Website


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“The End of Cold Calling?” by Ron LaVine View Profile | Visit Website I read recently that someone is advocating the end of cold calling. Never **** call again is their motto. They say that replacing cold calling with marketing will do the trick. I do not agree with this. One of the main purposes of cold calling is to find the correct people who have the authority to evaluate solutions and make decisions to buy. While smart marketing can help with this process, it relies upon the fact that the right person will be reached with the marketing information. While this may work for a simple type of sale, such as a sale of information over the Internet the same cannot be said in a complex sale where multiple buyers or influencers must be identified. Much as it might seem distasteful, we must still cold call. If you reframe cold calling as a game of how much information you can get on every call you can eliminate the feelings of rejection. By getting one more piece of information than you had before, even if it is only another name, you have gotten a result. If you have gotten a result than you have not been rejected. Another key purpose of cold calling is to set appointments. While clever marketing may help with this task, it cannot replace cold calling as a means of establishing a relationship. People buy from people not marketing. People also buy from people they know, like and trust. Like, means people similar to them. If you match and mirror the speed, tone and volume of the other person's voice, it becomes much easier and faster to establish rapport. Again marketing cannot replace the building of rapport. The best way to cold call is to start at the top of an organization and identify the key people involved in making a decision about whether or not to acquire your solution. As you work your way down, you gain intelligence from everyone you speak with. This


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helps you build a business case based upon value for why your solution is the answer to the problems a prospect faces. True marketing is largely designed to help build brand awareness in the marketplace. It does not substitute for cold calling and it never will. Accept this fact and you will be on your way to be building more business in less time rather than waiting for marketing to do the work. Never **** call again, I think not. Again the purpose of cold calling is build relationships with people that marketing may never reach. The other purpose of cold calling is to set appointments. While marketing may offer clever inducements to meet, it does not assure you are meeting with the right people. The bottom line is that cold calling will always remain important in the accomplishment of a complex sale. Reframe it as a game or puzzle into how much information you can get on every call and you will be on your way to eliminating rejection while gathering the information you need to make a sale. For some people never cold calling again may work. For the rest of us, we will need to keep cold calling if we want to make sure our pipeline remains full. A full pipeline means more sales in the long run and more sales leads to more commissions in your pockets.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Ron S. LaVine, president & founder of Accelerated Sales Training, Inc., has been in sales & sales management for over 35 years. AST specializes in working with B2B salespeople--both inside & outside, who cold call over the phone into the Fortune 1000 & large organizations such as local & state schools, universities, hospitals and local, state & federal government. AST, Inc., is a LIVE cold call sales training firm located in Oak Park, CA. Sign up for your no charge special report "41 sales Tips You Can Use Right Now" & the free bimonthly Sales Tips for Selling Success eZine at


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www.ast-incorp.com. If you would like information on Live Cold Call Sales Training please call Ron at 818-991-6487. View Profile | Visit Website


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“Top 10 E's to Motivate and Influence an Audience” Sandra by Schrift View Profile | Visit Website Speak with E's. Be a speaker of influence not control or guilt. With the privilege of the platform comes the awesome responsibility of motivating and influencing your audience to feel/think/act differently. 1. Educate provide your audience with extensive information on your topic. This will empower attendees to feel competent and knowledgeable. Support your points with stories. Stories help us see through the eyes of other people. Adults delineate their thoughts visually. 2. Entertain give them the facts laced with a good dose of humor. Adults learn better when they are lightening up! Here's the place for some magic tricks, handwriting analysis or a song. 3. Experience get the audience involved. When they interact, they get it better and retain it longer. Group exercises, simple questions and answers, role-plays. 4. Enthusiasm vary your tone of voice, smile often, and show passion for your subject matter. Make your body language reflect your comments. 5. Example be the speaker/person who motivates the audience to admire and respect you. You have succeeded when people say, I want to be like him/her. 6. Encourage be supportive to your audience believe in them. Acknowledge them Say, I did it and so can you. 7. Excellence hold yourself accountable for excellence. And then help your audience be accountable and live up to its potential. Speakers need to give audiences what they need, not what they want. 8. Expertise demonstrate that you know your stuff. Speak about what you know from your business background, personal experiences and research. Be perceived as an expert on your topic. 9. Eloquence deliver your speech with high energy, sincerity, inspiration, and a sense of humor. Are you one of a kind? What makes


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you different from your competitors? 10. End result you want to energize your audience to take some risks, some action, go to the edge and execute . . .make their dreams come true, or get the job done. Your information should be useful and immediately applicable to their lives.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Coach Schrift, who started the first national, professional Speakers Bureau in San Diego in 1982, now works with emerging and experienced speakers on reaching the next level in their speaking careers. Coach Schrift also loves to partner with business owners on growing themselves as well as their business. She typically coaches clients three times per month by telephone with email and fax support as needed. Her goal is to help you resolve problems and challenges in "real time" coaching. View Profile | Visit Website


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“It's The Sales Process That Sells, Not the Salesperson” by Steve Martinez View Profile | Visit Website If your sales team doesn’t follow a sales process, you’re losing sales. When sales management focuses on the process of sales and monitors the path salespeople take for each sale, they increase the success rate. Salespeople can get lost in the hectic world of sales reports and activities. When salespeople focus on the stages of the sale and what the next step is, they win more deals. When sales people lose sales, does this mean they were lost? The words “lost” makes one think that they lost their way along a path and something happened. In reality someone else may have stolen the order from them. When I was a kid my mother would put 25 cents, carefully wrapped and tied into one of my fathers’ handkerchiefs. This was an attempt to prevent me from losing it. She made it so huge that I couldn’t possibly lose the giant wad of material. She would send me off to school so I could use it for milk money. By the way, that money was for the week! As you know, a sale isn’t something we can wrap and seal in a handkerchief. If it was that easy, you wouldn’t be reading this for a better solution. Let’s face it; you can’t lose something you don’t have in the first place. Although some salespeople will think they have a sale before they actually have it in their hands. Why Salespeople lose sales in the process. If you have been managing sales for a while, you know that sales are almost 100% predictable. If salespeople follow the sales process, they will always come to a conclusion that is favorable to us. Unless they skip a step or overlook something and it is usually their fault for missing something. This is where they get lost. Some salespeople don’t realize how important sales steps are. Because of this, salespeople get lost in the sequence and sometimes try to skip steps of the process. This is usually how sales are lost. For the typical sales, non retail I recommend a six step process with a magical seventh step that shortens the sales cycle when applied consistently. Some people combine these steps and that might be ok but you can’t Featured Articles – SalesPractice.com

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skip any of them or you will lose. I divide the steps into two segments, Hunting and Farming because the first part is really hunting for the prospect and identifying the right prospects. The second part is like farming because we are building a relationship that might take months to nurture before the opportunity becomes ripe. Here are the sales steps in brief order. 1. The prospect must pass the “IF” test. This test is applied with questions to find out “IF” they are a real prospect, the test is ‘IF” they fit the profile of our perfect customer. “IF” they do not, we find another prospect. 2. The salesperson must then discover the “WHO” of the prospect. This is the true contact or contacts in the company or organization that we must meet with for an opportunity. This is achieved through questioning to identify the right prospect person. 3. The salesperson must then identify the “W’s” or pain points of the prospect. This is also achieved through questioning and research and an appointment is often the best way to discover this. These W’s are when, where, why, what issues that confirm our next step. 4. If we did our job in step three, we move over to the farming stage of the sales process which is really the “OPPORTUNITY” stage. Ideally we want to identify three “OPPORTUNITIES” which are solid pain points the prospect wants eliminated from their business or life. Once we have these identified, we can move to step five. 5. Step five is the easiest stage of all; it is the “PRESENTATION” stage of the sale. This is where the salesperson can combine all they have learned about the prospects problems and issues and at the right time, presents their solution. If everything was followed according to the process, the solution will be on target and received warmly for the next step. 6. Step six is the “CLOSE”. If you reach this point, the sale should be a slam dunk and a sealed deal because you have followed the process with a remedy for a solution the prospect wants. 7. The seventh step is magical because you can capture more business through a “REFERRAL” and a reference from the prospect and slip into the fourth step on the next opportunity and bypass the first three steps. Remember, if your sales people bypass any of the sales process steps, you lose! One of the best ways to improve sales is to focus on the sales process and the steps salespeople take to make a sale. Breaking up the sales process into modules and teaching salespeople how to move prospects from one step to the next is the right way to keep them from losing sales. Otherwise, you might need a very large handkerchief.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: When you want to impact sales using advanced selling strategies -- signup for Impactivator our sales eFeatured Articles – SalesPractice.com

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newsletter. Selling Magic teaches businesses how to automate and customize CRM solutions. This article was written by Steve Martinez, President of Selling Magic, LLC. http://www.sellingmagic.com View Profile | Visit Website


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“Top 10 Business Plan Myths of Solo Entrepreneurs” by Terri Zwierzynski View Profile | Visit Website Don't let these stop you from having a business plan for success! A recent study of 29,000 business startups noted that 26,000 of them failed. Of those failures, 67% had no written business plan. Think that's a coincidence? Here's the top 10 myths Solo Entrepreneurs often have about business plans—usually, the reasons why they don't have one. De-bunk the myths, and see how having a business plan for your solo business, can actually be easy and fun--and can jumpstart your success! 1. Myth: I don't need a business plan--it's just me! Starting a business without a plan is like taking a trip in a foreign country without a map. You might have a lot of fun along the way, and meet a lot of friends, but you are likely to end up at a very different place than you originally set out for—and you might have to phone home for funds for your return ticket. Solo Entrepreneur Reality: Successful Solo Entrepreneurs know that the exercise of creating a business plan, really helps them think through all the critical aspects of running a business, make better business decisions, and get to profitability sooner. 2. Myth: I have to buy business plan software before I can start. Business plan software comes in many shapes and sizes, and prices. Many are more geared at small and growing businesses with employees. Solo Entrepreneur Reality: Business plan software can be helpful— but it’s not required. Software is more likely to help if you have a more traditional type business, like a restaurant or a typical consulting business. 3. Myth: I need to hire a consultant to write my business plan. Consultants are an expensive way to have your business plan written.


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Solo Entrepreneur Reality: Your business IS you—and you need to be intimately involved with the creation of your business plan. A better strategy, if you think you need professional help, is to hire a coach or mentor—someone who can guide you in what you need to do, not do it for you. 4. Myth: The business plan templates I’ve seen have all these complex-sounding sections to them—I guess I need all those? The only time you need to follow a specific outline is if you are looking for funding. Solo Entrepreneur Reality: Your business plan needs to answer ten basic questions—that’s it! Don’t make things more complicated than necessary. 5. Myth: My business plan needs to be perfect before I can start my business. If you wait for everything to be perfectly detailed, you may never start. Solo Entrepreneur Reality: If you have at least a first draft that answers those ten basic questions, you are ready to launch your business! Make your business plan a living, evolving document. In the startup stages, review and update your plan every 2-3 months. As you grow and stabilize, you can slow down the review cycle to every 6-12 months. All business plans should be reviewed and updated at least once a year. 6. Myth: I have to do everything I say I’m going to do in my business plan, or I’m a failure. Many Solo Entrepreneurs never start because of this myth—which leaves them feeling that the success of their future business suddenly rides on each stroke of the pen or click of the keyboard! Solo Entrepreneur Reality: Think of your business plan as a roadmap for a trip. Expect to take some detours for road construction. Be flexible enough to take some exciting, unplanned side trips. And don’t be surprised if instead of visiting Mount Rushmore, you decide to go to Yellowstone, if that turns out to meet your vacation goals better! 7. Myth: A good business plan has a nice cover, is at least 40 pages long, must be typed and double-spaced…


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Business plans intended for investors, such as a bank or venture capitalist, must meet certain requirements that such investors expect. Solo Entrepreneur Reality: As a Solo Entrepreneur, your business plan need only satisfy YOU. It might be scribbled on a napkin, on stickie notes on your wall, or consist of a collage of pictures and captions. It might be all in one document or scattered among several mediums. As long as you know it in your head and heart without having to look at it, and and it is easily accessible to you when you have doubts, that’s all that is necessary. 8. Myth: I don’t need a loan—so I don’t need a business plan. YOU are the investor in your business—and would you invest in the stock of some company without seeing a prospectus? Solo Entrepreneur Reality: Seeing your plan in black and white (or color, if you prefer!), can give a whole new view on the financial viability of your business. If “doing the numbers” seems overwhelming, remember you don’t need fancy spreadsheets. Just lay out a budget that shows where all the money is coming from (and going), and have an accountant review it for additional perspective. 9. Myth: My business plan is in my head—that’s good enough. I don’t know about you, but I sometimes can’t remember what I planned yesterday to do tomorrow, if I don’t write it down! Solo Entrepreneur Reality: There is a real power in writing down your plans. Some schools of thought advocate that the act of writing a plan down triggers our subconscious to start working on how to manifest that plan. And, of course, it’s a lot easier to remember when you have it in front of you. And a lot easier to share and get feedback from your non-mind reading supporters. 10. Myth: Friends and family are the best sources of feedback and advice on my business plan. If your brother is an accountant and your best friend is a market research expert, then this might be true. Solo Entrepreneur Reality: As well meaning as our friends and family can often be, they just aren’t the best way to get honest, objective guidance. Instead, seek out folks that have specific knowledge that will help you, are willing to be candid with you, and


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that have a genuine interest in helping you succeed. A business coach is one resource to consider!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Terri Zwierzynski is a coach to small business owners and Solo Entrepreneurs. She is also the CEI (Conductor of Extraordinary Ideas) at Solo-E.com and the author of 136 Ways To Market Your Small Business. Terri is an MBA honors graduate from UNC-Chapel Hill. Terri has been coaching for over 10 years in a variety of settings, including 6 years as a senior-level coach and consultant for a Fortune 500 company. She opened her private coaching practice in 2001. You can reach Terri at http://www.TerriZ.com. View Profile | Visit Website


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“Become the Complete Package in Sales” by The Specialist View Profile | Visit Website

I often see sales professionals perplexed as to why they just don't seem to posses the "Complete Package" as a salesperson. The truth is that when we all first start out our enthusiasm is at an all time high. I mean, come on, we have a new opportunity with an unlimited future, it's a no-brainer. The problem is to achieve our goals we find that we are just a tad short in the product knowledge area. What happens during the course of our career is that, as our product knowledge grows, our enthusiasm starts to shrink. If you did a graph you could almost see one's knowledge going up like an elevator while our enthusiasm is going down. The shame of it all is no one has informed the salesperson that in order to become "The Perfect Weapon" one must maintain his or her enthusiasm just like a new person and let the knowledge catch up to the level of the enthusiasm. Then and only then are you the "Complete Package"!! It is ironic how often I see sales persons that have an abundance of enthusiasm only to lack product knowledge, and see another salesperson with tremendous product knowledge only to fall way short in the enthusiasm category. The veteran sales person that is operating with a 100 percent product knowledge and no enthusiasm is really only operating at 50 percent capacity. The way I managed to reach and maintain a peak with both was to give back to the industry by helping others. Yes, by passing my knowledge on to others it not only kept me young but because I was always working with young people eager to learn it helped me maintain my enthusiasm, even more so when I heard from someone or saw the look on their young faces when something I showed them worked as planned. The enthusiasm the young persons injected in me because they were so excited about their accomplishment was definitely contagious. It didn't take me long to realize there were a lot of benefits from helping others. Rate yourself...draw two straight lines on a piece of paper from north to south and label one enthusiasm and one product knowledge. See where you stand. I guarantee you will see your product knowledge coming up to your enthusiasm level and your enthusiasm level going Featured Articles – SalesPractice.com

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to meet your knowledge level. I have given you not only the formula to find out where you stand but also the answer to how you get your enthusiasm at the top where it belongs. Let the product knowledge chase the enthusiasm. I guarantee it will be worth the wait!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: “The Specialist” has over 38 years of sales, management and training experience! When one thinks of salespersons one usually thinks of the typical car, copy machine, pharmaceutical, business to business type sales persons. “The Specialist” has over 25 years of hard core door to door sales with no leads and no referrals and for 38 years has never had a guaranteed paycheck! “The Specialist” has interviewed over 250,000 people in the privacy of their home, has interviewed over 5,000 people for employment opportunities, group interviewed and sold literally tens of thousands of people, spoken at colleges and universities and has literally amassed millions upon millions of dollars in sales! While being recognized as “Man of the Year” six times in his career and being awarded enough awards to fill three 8′ by 10′ walls and training people from coast to coast in sales and management who have gone on to stellar careers themselves, “The Specialist” has decided it is time in his career to pass all of his knowledge and experiences to the next generation of great salespersons and managers! View Profile | Visit Website


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“The three biggest challenges salespeople face today” by Tim Connor View Profile | Visit Website Salespeople face a variety of challenges in their career. Selling is like no other profession in that it requires exceptional people skills as well as the mastery of a great number of specific sales competencies and attitudes that are not generally found in other careers. For you sales veterans, please don’t stop reading now, as I believe that many well-established sales professionals often struggle with these same three challenges. There are obviously more than three challenges that new salespeople must deal with on a daily basis, so how did I single out the following three as the most critical? You can survive in a sales career without many of the others that are not mentioned here, but if you can’t overcome or deal with these three your successful future career in sales my be in doubt. Here are the three. 1) The ability to control your attitudes no matter what is going on around you. In sales you will be bombarded daily with economic issues, customer challenges and organizational problems that will never go away. Sure, many of them will subside from time to time, while other new ones will surface. But, you will soon discover that your success can’t be subject to the ebb and flow of these external issues, many of which you have no control over. What can you do? - Recognize that your ultimate success is ultimately in your hands and not the control of the government, your organization or your competitors. - Accept the fact that a positive attitude is one of your greatest allies in a successful career. - Don’t ever give up control of your ability to control your attitudes. - Read self-help materials with a vengeance.


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2) The ability to manage your time and resources. The single common denominator in all salespeople whether they are just starting out or are making significant 6 figure incomes is – time. People who fail and people who succeed all have the same 24 hours to work with. Some may have a better education while others may be endowed with a great family heritage, but in the end everyone gets only 24 hours a day to use as they will. What can you do? - Develop an – early start concept. Start your day, your planning, your goal setting – your everything – while everyone else is still thinking about ‘getting started’. - Whatever time a task or activity takes, get in the habit of cutting the time you have available for it in half. - Make focus, concentration your mantra. Don’t let distractions and interruptions rule your day or your life. - Spend ten percent of your time in planning and goal setting activities. - Develop a ruthless attitude about self-evaluation of your activities and results. Keep asking yourself – why, why not, how could I be doing – anything – better. 3) The ability to handle failure, rejection and discouragement. Failure and rejection come with the territory on a fairly routine basis in sales. No one is immune to a lost sale after a significant amount of time and resources were invested. No one sells everyone all the time. The resiliency to overcome disappointment, rejection and yes, even failure, is a critical part of the successful salesperson’s psyche. What can you do? - Accept the simple premise that not everyone you meet is going to like you or buy from you. This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try. -Learn to learn from your failures. See failure as a stepping stone to being better. -Fail often so you can succeed sooner.


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-Spend routine time in self-evaluation (I have two great tools that can help you. My book, Life Questions and my manual, Sales Competence and Evaluation. See my website to order them both.) The rest is up to you. You can settle for being average or even mediocre or you can decide that your future is up to you and no one or nothing else is going to stop you, ever.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Tim is the best selling author of over 65 books including several international best sellers, Soft Sell (the number one best selling sales book in the world today, now in 18 languages) Above Ground, A Story Of Life's Gifts To You and Life Is Short, Live Laugh And Love While You Can. Since 1981 his books have sold over 3 million copies in 23 countries. View Profile | Visit Website


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“24/7 Customer Centric” by Wally Adamchik View Profile | Visit Website We live in a customer centric society. Consumers don’t just go shopping anymore; they want to be comforted by a brand. Been to a ball game lately? These are experiences that have a sporting event as the backdrop. People in our society seek an ever increasing degree of satisfaction whenever they purchase something. Ultimately, this manifests itself in wanting the highest possible quality at the lowest possible price. How did we get here? Who is to blame for this mentality? I offer two companies. First, is Taco Bell. In the mid-1980s they did something radically different. They introduced the value menu in fast food. This was like getting a pay raise. All of a sudden you could get a taco for 99 cents – and a full meal for not much more than that. This move started a price war that the fast food industry continues to fight today. To confirm that the fight is still on, what is the first thing you look for when you walk into a fast food restaurant? For the majority of readers, it is the value menu - often featuring a 99 cent price point. An interesting, and often overlooked point, about this shift in that industry is that Taco Bell made dramatic operational changes to their system to support the introduction of the value menu. They moved some of the food preparation out of individual stores and into central commissary kitchens. They also began using other pre-prepared items. This lowered their cost structure enabling them to charge less. In this case, they enjoyed a true competitive advantage. Other chains were forced to mirror pricing but were slow to introduce an updated operational model. The other firm I blame is Fed Ex. Before FedEx if you wanted to send a letter from New York to Atlanta, or anywhere else in America, let alone the world, it would easily take 3 – 5 days. With the introduction of FedEx, we could send a letter around the world with the reasonable expectation that it would get there overnight. Today we still send material cross-town, via Memphis, to make sure it gets there overnight. Still other changes have made the consumer more demanding. The final push to this customer centric society is the internet and our new ability to access information related. If you want to know where your


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package is, how much your balance is, or what your car insurance may cost, all you have to do is get online and after a few clicks, you have the information you need. Don’t forget the ever present Wal-Mart and the impact that is having on consumer expectations. Some reports indicate that over 60% of Americans will shop in a Wal-Mart in any given month. All these changes mean one thing – your customer is more demanding than ever. Often business to business sellers will argue that the person buying from them isn’t using their own money so they don’t really think this way. How else are they to feel? If most other purchases in their life are met with superior customer service and value, you can expect that they have the same expectation of you. Truly sophisticated buyers may in fact know your business model and the attendant challenges with delivering superior service, but that does not mean they don’t shop at Nordstrom or Wal-Mart and have a standard they would like to see all buying experiences attain. So, what have you done lately to make sure you are delivering the experience that your customer truly wants? Notice I didn’t say to deliver what they expect; their expectations may not be very high. Do you know what they truly want? On time and on budget is not what they want – they expect that, it is what you do for a living. Imagine you are purchasing a brand new automobile. You have waited six weeks for this baby to show up at the dealer and you are truly excited about the prospect of picking up your new machine. The day you are to pick it up, you took the day off to polish the floor of your garage and you drive your old trade-in to the dealer. As you get out of the old clunker, the salesman greets you with a genuine warm welcoming smile and addresses you by your name. You honestly feel welcome as your old car silently disappears from the picture. The salesman is beaming as he congratulates you on your purchase and invites you to walk with him. As he rounds the corner to the new vehicle delivery room, he stops and looks you right in the eye and with total seriousness he says, “You are going to love this car. We went all out for you. In fact, we even put tires on it for you!” Are you dazzled? Probably not. Don’t you expect the tires when you buy the car? What does your client expect when they buy from you? Are you delivering? Even worse, what do they not expect and are you delivering that? All too often we mistake the satisfied customer, the one who doesn’t complain, as the loyal customer. They may just be waiting for the next viable vendor to show up. You must ask how you are doing. And you must ask in many ways; surveys, follow-up calls, face-to-face and what ever else is appropriate. Additionally, everyone in your firm must be able to ask – and that takes some training but the Featured Articles – SalesPractice.com

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payback is in the form of increased customer retention because you show you care. This retention generally shows up in market share and as profits. The changes in customer buying practices over the past decade are permanent. Disregarding this new reality is a strategy for business failure. As a consumer you are demanding and have expectations. The people who consume what you sell are demanding and have expectations to. Do you know what they are? Ask them. 24/7, It is all about them.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Wally Adamchik is a professional leadership speaker and consultant. As an Officer of Marines, Wally deployed throughout the world to participate in training, peace-keeping, and combat operations. He then entered the private sector, applying his leadership philosophy to the pursuit of operational excellence in business. Wally was recognized for superior performance and awardwinning leadership at two national restaurant companies. As a consultant, his solutions are practical, profitable, and powerful. Wally is a galvanizing speaker who aims to sparks a fire in your audience. For more information, visit www.beafirestarter.com. View Profile | Visit Website


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“8 Strategies to Guarantee Success in Cold Calling” by Wendy Weiss View Profile | Visit Website 1. Make telephone calls No one will buy from you if they do not know of you, your company/products/services. Every sale has its own cycle. Depending on what you are selling, it could be a short cycle of a day or two, or it could be a long cycle of a year or two. Your call is your introduction and the start of your entire sales process. Without that initial prospecting call, you will not close any sales. 2. Make a lot of telephone calls If you have only one prospect to pursue, that prospect becomes overwhelmingly important. If you have hundreds of leads, no one prospect can make or break you. The more calls you make, the more success you will have. Schedule time in your calendar, every day, to prospect. Successful prospecting is not about having one perfect conversation with one prospect, it is about having many conversations with many prospects and filling your sales funnel so that you never want for opportunities. 3. Target your market Out of every one in the entire world who might possibly buy what you are selling, who is most likely to buy? Start by profiling your best customers. By "best" I mean who buys the most and the most often? You are looking for prospects who match that profile. They are more likely to need and want what you are selling. Those are the prospects you should call first. The more targeted your calling list, the more successful your calls will be and the better it will be for your bottom line. Spend your time calling prospects who will potentially give you the most return for your investment of time. 4. Understand why customers buy from you Every prospect is thinking: "What's in it for me? Why should I be interested in speaking with you? What are you offering that will help me, my business, my bottom line, my employees.?" Ask yourself: What is the value that you offer? What is the benefit that your customers receive from doing business with you? When making your prospecting calls, make sure to lead with the benefit and/or value. This will answer your prospects' "What's in it for me?" question. It will certainly set you apart from the crowd, as most prospectors don't do this. It will also catch your prospects' attention and give you the opportunity to have


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real conversations. 5. Call high Always call the highest-level person that you believe is the decisionmaker. That person will either be the decision-maker or they will know who is and they can point you in the right direction. Too many prospectors make the mistake of going in too low (the low-hanging fruit syndrome). They call managers rather than directors, administrators rather than owners, believing that the call will be easier. It won't. What will actually happen is that your sales cycle will lengthen and/or implode because you will not be speaking with someone who can make a decision. You will spend months courting someone who will then turn around and say, "I need to ask my boss." If they come back with the answer, "My boss didn't like it," you are dead in the water. Bottom line: If you are not speaking with the decision-maker, you are not speaking with a qualified prospect. 6. Know the goal of your conversation The questions you want to ask yourself are: When I hang up the telephone what do I want to have accomplished? What agreement do I want from my prospect today? For example: If you are making calls to set an appointment, then the goal of your call is the appointment. It is not to close the sale. That, of course, is your ultimate goal, but it comes much later in the process. Very few sales are accomplished in one phone call. Make your call with your goal in mind. Say enough to accomplish that goal and save everything else for later conversations. Then repeat the process. 7. Ask for what you want The biggest mistake that I see time and time again is that prospectors do not ask for what they want. Once you know the goal of your conversation, (see #5 above) decide exactly how you are going to ask for that goal. Create a script so that you can clearly and succinctly ask. Your prospect will not read your mind, guess or offer. You must ask. I have seen clients double and triple their results simply from starting to consistently, in every single phone call, ask for what they want. 8. Have fun This is not life or death-it's only a cold call. The fate of the world does not rest on you and your telephone. You will not destroy your company or ruin your life if a prospect says "no." Loosen up, be creative, have some fun!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Wendy Weiss, "The Queen of Cold Calling," is a sales trainer, author and sales coach. Her recently released program, Featured Articles – SalesPractice.com

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The Miracle Appointment-Setting Script, and/or her book, Cold Calling for Women, can be ordered by visiting http://queenofcoldcalling.com. View Profile | Visit Website


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“Why Referral Sources Go Sour” by Will Turner View Profile | Visit Website As a salesperson, you can geometrically multiply your impact in the marketplace with some well-connected referral sources and strategic alliances. Think about it. What would you be able to accomplish with four, five or six other salespeople diligently working on your behalf, uncovering opportunities and making high-level introductions for you? Creating alliances and referral source relationships is an easy concept to grasp. A referral source is someone who provides an ongoing stream of qualified referrals to you. Special emphasis is on the words “ongoing stream.” We’re not talking about random referrals which will happen from clients or others who like what you do and how you do it. A strategic alliance, on the other hand, usually denotes a more formal arrangement where there might be joint promotion or client servicing between companies with complimentary products or services. So the premise of both alliances and referral sources is that other people in different organizations are helping you grow your business faster than you could grow it by yourself. With that said, shouldn’t every salesperson have at least a few referral sources or strategic alliances that they can rely on? In our work with clients, we find that most salespeople fall way short in this area. That’s because building relationships with referral sources and strategic alliances is not on their radar screen or because building successful referral sources and strategic alliances is harder than it looks. In fact, Karen is a client of mine. With some frustration she asked me, “How can I make referral sources work? I’ll have a great meeting with someone and we both seem excited about helping each other and referring business back and forth and then nothing seems to happen.” Karen’s experience is very typical. The reality is that most people skip important steps in the process because no one has ever taught them how to successfully build referral relationships and strategic alliance partnerships. Since most salespeople are winging it and flying by the seat of their pants much of the time, you have a recipe for disaster. In order to create a referral source strategy that will turn into a well-


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oiled money-making machine, you must avoid some common mistakes. Mistake 1: Start referring business immediately. Any good referral relationship requires a foundation of trust. In other words, if I’m going to refer my valued relationships to you, I better be sure that you are going to take care of my referrals to my level of satisfaction. Otherwise, my reputation and my relationships are damaged. Instead, you’ll need to gain a comfort level with your potential partners. Do you respect and trust them? Will they live up to their word? Do they provide the level of service that you and your clients demand? Are you both in a position to help each other at a level that meets your needs? Depending on what you already know about them, this relationship building process may take a couple of interactions or many more. Take the time to get it right. No good will come out of jumping in bed with the wrong partner. Mistake 2: Expectations aren’t communicated clearly. This is one of the problems that my client Karen was experiencing. She was having a positive meeting with a possible referral partner and then any momentum that was building came to a halt. Each party needs to clearly articulate and agree to what is expected in the relationship. For example, if I expect you to give me three referrals per month and you don’t deliver, I’m going to be very disappointed. Create expectations that are specific, measurable attainable and have a deadline. To avoid disappointment or frustration, you should also communicate basic terms to make sure that you are both on the same page. For instance, there is a difference between passing someone a lead and passing them a qualified referral. How would you define a qualified referral? How would your referral partner? Make sure that you reach a common understanding. Mistake 3: No accountability and/or lack of commitment. For any referral relationship or strategic alliance to work for the long-term, there must be an appropriate balance of accountability and commitment by both parties. If I’m willing to dedicate five hours per month to reaching our goals and building our relationship and you’re only willing to commit to an hour per month, we’ve got a problem. We could realign our Featured Articles – SalesPractice.com

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expectations, adjust our commitment level to be more in sync or be willing to walk away from any partnership. Mistake 4: There’s no shared process for the next step. If we decide that our initial goal is to get one referral for each other, how can we best do that? If we are both left to our own devices, it’s likely that one or both of us may fall short. Instead, develop a process to make it easy. One way you can do this is to help each other identify opportunities. There are lots of ways this can be done. Each person could bring a list of their five best clients or relationships to the table to discuss and review with each other. Or each person could bring a list of their top 10, 25, 50 or 100 contacts that meet a certain predetermined profile. A next step or course of action should come out of the review and discussion of your contacts. Mistake 5: No strategies for accomplishing our tasks. Now that we have identified opportunities for each other, we will need to determine what strategies will work best. In other words, what can we each do to facilitate a proper introduction for the other. The answer is going to depend on the people involved and our relationship with them. A strategy with one contact may be to set up a lunch with everyone where you can personally make the introduction and lead the discussion. Or a strategy could be to ask permission from your contact to have your referral source call them. Each situation is different and may require a different strategy. Mistake 6: No follow-through to see what worked and what didn’t. After you have executed the strategy, you and your referral partner need to evaluate how things worked. Was the end result accomplished? Is there anything that could have been done differently to improve the results? Are there some lessons learned that will allow us to improve the process the next time? Taking the proper time to debrief afterwards will be very educational for both parties. Consequently, you’ll be able to learn better ways to introduce and position your referral partner. Mistake 7: The process doesn’t get repeated. Once you go through the process of identifying, strategizing, executing and evaluating, you can’t stop there. Take the lessons you’ve learned and repeat the process again and again. Over time, you will need to adjust your expectations and commitment Featured Articles – SalesPractice.com

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to each other to make sure that you both stay on track. Open and honest communication with each other will bind your relationship. While creating referral relationships or strategic alliances is not without its challenges, the rewards are many. A good solid partnership will enhance and benefit both parties. It will also benefit your clients and other contacts because you’re able to provide valuable resources and connections to the people that need them.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Will Turner is the Founder and President of Dancing Elephants Achievement Group, a sales training and consulting company focused on getting dramatic sales growth for service-oriented companies that want to grow their business-to-business sales. Will is a speaker, author and trainer with 25 years of sales, marketing and sales management experience. Will created the Sales Magnetism program and co-authored Six Secrets of Sales Magnets. His clients increase sales an average of 56% in the first year of working with Dancing Elephants. Visit www.DancingElephants.net for more tips, strategies and ideas to become a sales magnet or email [email protected]. View Profile | Visit Website


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